Carne Guisada

I stand in my kitchen over a dutch oven stirring a pot of what is suppose to be carne guisada.  Yup...I am wondering what I did in my life that brought me to this moment and thinking do I even know what I am doing?  Apparently it is one of those dishes that fortunately just sounds hard but is amazingly simple and is delicious.  John I guess was browsing for dinner ideas and threw this little gem my way.  He of course is a add this, do that kind of a person.  I feel as though you should at least give the original recipe a shot before going and making improvements on something.  Not him!  He already had me adding potatoes and green chilis to it before I even got the grocery list written down.  My Husband thankfully has good taste in everything.  My first crack at this recipe was a success and left me shouting the dinner bell with confidence.  

Green Chile Carne Guisada

4 russet potatoes

5 cups cold water

3 TB salt

Cube potatoes and put in cold salted water to boil until tender.

2 TB oil

1-2 pounds sirloin cubed

3 TB flour

In a dutch oven add your oil to the pan on medium heat.  Dredge sirloin chunks in flour and add to the pan.

While that is browning..

2 roma tomatoes diced

1 bunch of cilantro chopped

1 small onion diced

4 roasted, skinned, deseeded and chopped green chiles

Add to the dutch oven once the meat is browned.  Stir and prepare..

2 Tb cumino seeds

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 tsp black pepper corns

Toast cumino seeds just until fragrant, mince garlic cloves, crushed red pepper and black peppercorns until a paste forms.  Add to the pot and add remaining ingredients.

3 Cups beef stock

salt & pepper to taste

You will notice that once you add the stock that the liquid forms a gravy.  Once it has reached that point drop the temperature to low heat and simmer for an hour.  Once the meat is tender add your cooked potatoes and gently stir until coated.

Serve with warm tortillas over rice!

Stuffed Dove Wrapped In Bacon

Sepp suggested some sort of guest blog spot for me so we could highlight what some others where cooking. It is actually a really great idea since I do not post daily, and it gives me the chance to hear what it is y'all like to eat. He is the first one to face the heat with his bacon wrapped dove. If you like it leave a comment! If you would like to be a part of What'cha Got Cookin' email me @ icouldjusteatyouup@gmail.com with your recipe and pictures. I will try your recipes before posting so I can give my taste test approval as well. Some light editing maybe done!

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A few weeks ago I was invited over to my sister and brother in laws house for dinner. John wasn't going to be home so I thought what the heck, plus I could use the conversation. Well let me be honest what sold me was the pics that my sister had sent to me through text showing me what was for dinner. Big, juicy, succulent dove wrapped in bacon and grilled. Anyone from the Texas Panhandle, or hunter or wife of a hunter, probably just had to wipe the saliva from their watering mouth. I have honestly only had this one other time in my life, years ago and I still haven't forgotten it. So upon arriving Sepp starts telling me about his technique for grilling the dove, and a few other ways he thinks would taste pretty good. He asks for my "expertise" as well as some ways to keep the dove moist. I through out a few suggestions but when it came time to eating, my first bite was so moist and had a slight smokiness from the bacon wrap, then I got the roasted jalapeños with melted cheese oozing from the center. You just don't get flavor like that everyday. So in my opinion if it ain't broke don't fix it. There is not one thing I would change about this recipe.

What'cha Got Cookin'?

Dove Marinade - for bone in cleaned doves

1 cup beer 

1 cup soy sauce

1 tsp each of the following: 

garlic powder

onion powder

brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped onions

splash of any citrus juice

Marinate for 18-24 hours. Wrap the dove in thick cut bacon and place in a grill friendly dish. Keep the dove in a pile on low for 15 min, then separate the dove and grill on medium for 15-20 min until bacon is fully cooked. Dove will be pink in the middle but perfectly cooked.

You might want to add some sort of green chile recipe with this. I think it's a blessing that dove and green chile season take place at the same time.

Recipe Complementary of Sepp Haukebo

Spicy Chicken & Andouille Gumbo Over Buttered Rice

  

You know what the colder weather brings?  Warm me up dinners.  I am stock piling all my favorite soups and stew recipes along with a few experiments.  Today's experiment....  Spicy gumbo.  When I was in culinary school in Galveston, I had plenty of run ins with some true Cajuns.  Those people if you don't know, love them some food.  They have a dang good reason too, they cook it so well.  Full of spice and flavor and the time put in the meals you can taste on the plate.  When you eat creole Cajun food you will fall in love first bite, then all over again with the next one =)

I start by boiling 4 chicken thighs in highly season water for 1 hour.

1 TB crushed red pepper flakes

1 TB cyan

1TB onion powder

1/4 cup Sriracha

1/4 cup salt

Once chicken is cooked remove from pot and cool.  When you are able to handle it you can begin to remove skin and debone the chicken.  Slice two links of andouille sausage and mix with cooled chicken.  At this point I like to hit it with more Sriracha, Louisiana, and cayenne.  I want my gumbo spicy.  If your palate is more mild you can omit any of the spices listed.

While you chicken is cooking you can begin to make your roux.  Not gonna lie I've made a dark roux before and I did not feel like standing over a hot stove for 30 minutes to cook flour in some fat.....  Well I was going too until I saw a awesome jar of pre made creole Cajun roux at the supermarket.  I didn't have too high of hope for it when I bought is so I did taste it when I got home.  Have you ever taken a bite of a cookie made with salt not sugar.  Or are a fan of unsweetened tea but unknowingly took a swig of sweet tea?  Well that was my reaction.  I was spitting in the sink and sucking down water from the faucet.  It was perfect!!

Ok so in a stock pot add 32 oz of beef broth and 32 oz of water.  Now for some more seasoning.  I like to add about 1/4 cup of chicken bouillon, salt, pepper, 1 TB garlic powder, 1 TB onion powder, 2 heaping TB of red pepper flakes, 1 heaping TB cayenne, 1/4 Sriracha and 1/4 cup Louisiana.  Bring to boil then add 3/4 cup of dark roux.  You will whisk in until completely dissolved.  The gumbo will begin to thicken.  Once the roux is dissolved add your meat.  You want it to start soaking up as much flavor as possible.  Let simmer and stir occasionally for 30 minutes.

If you gumbo isn't as tight as you would like ( I like it to hold on to the rice not make it soupy) then you can make a quick slurry pretty much frowned on by every chef in the world, but you know what who the heck cares.  There is a time and place for everything and right now you may need a quick solution.  1/4 cup corn starch 2 TB water.  Completely mix then stir in gumbo.  It will immediately thicken.  Bring to boil again then remove from heat.  In my experience 1 hour on the stove didn't make it less flavorful than if it would have been on there 3.  Serve over hot buttered rice.

For the rice add 4 cups of water to sauce pan and boil.  Add 1/4 butter and melt then add 2 cups of white rice.  Stir, lower heat to simmer and place lud on pot.  Cook 25 minutes.  After it is cooked fluff with fork.  

Cheesy Chile Enchiladas

It was a wonderful first day of fall.  I got up early that morning made apple fritters and drank a hot cup pumpkin spiced joe on the back porch with the hound dog.  It was quiet and quaint and the best part the hubs was about to make his way home!!  The previous night my sister Katie stopped by the house to drop off some fresh roasted hot hatch peppers.  Have I mentioned we are still devouring those suckers!  While I sit there drinking my coffee and eating my hot apple fritter a previous suttle comment of "make us something for dinner with those chiles we brought you" came to my mind.  I brought the idea to Johns attention an asked what I should make.  He suggested enchiladas.  Immediately all these ideas of something hot, spicy, cheesy, chiles with white sauce began to flood my mind.  I went to the store and bought enough to make a meal big enough to feed an army.  Of course my phone rings as I am carrying in my last load of groceries.  I answer it and sure enough they called him out on another job and John wasn't going to get to come home.  I let him know that I would still be making the chile enchiladas and his only request was to save some for him.





I start out by adding 1/4 cup olive oil to a pan turn up the heat to medium and begin adding your spices.  I added 1 TB of each cyan pepper,  diced garlic,  salt, pepper, & red pepper flakes.  I cook in the oil just until they start to dance then I add in a lot of chiles!!

I used close to 1 pound of chiles.  Once those have you coughing over the fire then add in your meat.  I actually cooked almost 2 1/2 pounds of beef for these enchiladas.  You probably want to use less if you are not feeding the entire block.

Cook your meat until its completely browned.  If you notice a lot of juice at the bottom of the pan I like to add 1 TB of flour and stir it in.  It will tighten that flavor to where you do not have to pour it out.  

While your meat is browning I go ahead and cook my tortillas.  30 to be exact.  I ended up making 24 enchiladas, and 6 of the tortillas were placed on the bottom of my baking dish to ensure nothing would get stuck to the bottom of the pan!  You can cook the white corn tortillas by adding 1 TB of oil to a pan over medium high heat and cooking for about 10 seconds on each side.  This is not really cooking it is just to loosen the tortillas so when you begin to roll them they do not break and tear.  It is very frustrating when that happens and you will probably swear you will never make them again.  Then you find yourself in the kitchen weeks later giving it another go.  True story.

Once you are done with the tortillas, we move on to the white sauce.  You can call it white sauce, sour cream sauce......Uh creamy white sauce whatever.  All I can say is it is nothing like the red sauce!  I usually slather sour cream all over mine as well but this sauce adds just enough of that creamy goodness that it's not needed!

Blanco Sauce

Melt:

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup flour

Add & Bring to boil:

32 oz chicken stock

Stir in:

16 oz sour cream

2 cups chiles

Add about a cup of the sauce to the bottom of the pan and begin rolling your enchiladas with about 2 TB of meat per tortilla.  I place the flap of the tortilla on the side to where it hugs the pan and doesn't come unrolled.  Once your pan is full pour as much as the sauce over the meat and tortillas.  I suggest most of it cause you do not want yours to turn out dry!!!   Finish by adding 3 cups of Monterey jack cheese to the top and baking at 350 for 30 minutes then 450 for an additional 10.

When everyone gathers at the dinner table for this meal there will be no sad faces.  The spice is enough to make your mouth water and the cheese is ooey gooey with every bite.

To finish my story from earlier.  John made it home in time for lunch the next day.  To his surprise we left him half the whole pan of enchiladas.  He lived happily ever after  =)

The End.

Sweet Adobo Short Ribs with Green Chile Risotto

 Green Chile Risotto

Start by pouring 8 cups of chicken broth in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer

In a fry pan drizzle 3 TB of olive oil 

add 1 1/2 cups arborio rice

white pepper & salt

as well as roasted and deseeded green chile's 

toast rice and green chile's

add 1 cup of white wine and let cook in rice 

 begin to ladle broth into the rice one at a time until completely absorbed by rice then add another

I use all 8 cups of liquid and it is perfect.  

*It depends on what kind of bite and texture you want your rice to have.  You may need more or use less.

Once you are finished adding the broth and it is absorbed then add 4 TB of butter and stir.

Add 1 1/2 cups of Monterey jack cheese and stir until creamy

 *parmesan is traditionally used but I decided to take another route with this chile risotto

Sweet Adobo Short Ribs

In your cooker of choice add

S&P a package of short ribs (some come with 4-6 ribs) place in cooker

Pour 1 can of Dr. Pepper & 1 can of Sprite over the short ribs

(the sweet from both drinks compliments the smokey peppers and it also help tenderize the ribs)

Put 1 can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce on top of the meat

Sprinkle 3 TB dark brown sugar on top of the meat and peppers

 I cook my short ribs in a pressure cooker for 1 hour and 30 minutes.  You can do this on the stove top or even in the oven as well.  The cook time would need to be increased to 6 hours and cook on 350 in the oven and over medium on the stove top with the lid on both.

I start making my risotto 1 hour into the short ribs cook time.  This gives me the chance to plate them both up fresh and hot with no reheating needed.  The ribs will be tender and fall off the bone and served on top of the rich creamy risotto.  I even drizzle some of the sauce from the short ribs over the risotto.  The smokey flavor will wow your taste buds.    

The outline of this recipe but with no specific measurements and or details is derived from The Pioneer Woman.

Go Green Burgers With Spiced Sweet Potato Fries and Brown Butter Sauce

So once again my Husband and I are doing our part in celebrating the Hatch chile pepper season. It only last until mid September up here so don't worry the over indulging on these spicy little devils will be coming to an end soon.  So on this busy day at work I should have been focusing on payroll, but honestly that was the farthest thing from my mind.  No I do not always think of food, and no you would not believe me if you saw my figure.  So anyways back to the peppers.  We have had cheese rellenos, tacos, paella and now green burgers.  The green burger is a hail to almost all things green.  Well kinda, chiles, avocados, green spring mix, jalapeño salsa, and wasabi mayo.  I know sometimes you think a burger I am not in the mood for a burger.  That is actually how I was this evening when John told me he didn't care what I made for dinner but he wanted something with the Hatch peppers.  Way to give me options babe.  So as I am walking in the store I was thinking green chiles green chiles green chiles.  Hmm green green green.  Then viola!  Green burgers.  I knew something would come to me.  I love green burgers, so I immediately head to the veggies section and grab all the produce I need.  Pick up the hamburger meat some buns and head home.



Go ahead and start getting your grill or pan hot.  I already had some roasted peppers from the local market that I chopped up and put with my pound of hamburger meat.  I seasoned my meat with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes and a dash of cyan.  Yes I season my meat a lot.  There is nothing worse than having to dress up the burger so much just to make it have flavor.

Go ahead and get your hands dirty (after washing them of course) by mixing in the peppers and your seasonings of choice with your hamburger meat.  Once that is all mixed go ahead and pat out your patties.  I like to do my a bit bigger because the meat tends to shrink during the grill/pan time.  

Once patted go put them on the hot grill and cook for 6 minutes on each side, or burn it like rubber like my Moms side of the family would want it.  The peppers may stick to the grill a bit but it won't do enough damage for you to want to throw the spatula across the yard.  

This is Searcy.  You met her in a previous blog all about me =) She is a happy hound when its grilling time.  She loves posing for pictures, sits on command and even plays dead for just a small chance she will get something to eat.  

Once the burgers are cooked they will have a beautiful char and a very smokey fragrant.  You won't want to wait long to get the fixins on this and in your mouth.  But first....

.....Let's make a side.  Spiced sweet potatoes with a brown butter sauce.  

Get three sweet potatoes and slice.  You can put them on a standard baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  You do not want them to swim you want just enough to where you can mix them around to get them coated.  Then I have some cinnamon sugar from World Market I absolutely love and grind some on the potatoes.  All in all I would say about 2 TB of cinnamon sugar along with a sprinkle of salt.  Bake for 20-25 minutes at 425.  It is not necessary to flip these during baking.  

While those are baking I add 1 stick of salted butter and 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar to a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.  I then add 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 TB of worchestire sauce stir and its ready to pour up.  This takes about 10 minutes.  You will want to start the potatoes before you begin your burgers so they will be ready at the same time.  

It's dinner time!!!!  To get the full effect of the green burger I start with a whole wheat bun and slather on a layer of wasabi mayo, green chile patty, extra sliced chiles, avocado, spring mix and jalapeno salsa.  I am a BBQ hamburger girl so I can't resist but to use some of my brown butter sauce on this burger as well.  The sweet with the spicy is just fireworks in your mouth.    

Hatch Chile Chicken Paella

It was just Searcy and I this morning in a clean house with John out on a job.  I was kinda excited because I had bought three new cookbooks yesterday I could not wait to look at!  As I sat reading through my new treasures I couldn't get chicken out of my head.  Sundays I always think deserve a special meal.  One that would take too long to even consider for a week night, and one you just can't find the time to squeeze in on a saturday.  Although it was my plan to be in my kitchen all day I whipped this paella out in 1 1/2 hours.  That is not including my store time.  I stayed in the poultry section for 30 minutes sulking that they didn't have split breast with ribs with the skin on it.  I thought OMG I am going to have to think of something else to cook but alas I got the heck over it and grabbed the skinless chicken and merrily went on my way.  This recipes was originally going to have piquillo peppers in it but that too I could not find at the store.  During the check out I did however noticed a $5.00 bag of roasted Hatch chile peppers.  So I improvised.  Boy will my hubby love me for that.  

I happen to have a pretty awesome mom by the way that bought me a set of Rachael Ray cooking pans for my birthday.  It came with a 5 qt sauté pan I have yet to use until today.  With as much room this pan has to occupy I knew it would be perfect to withstand the task of this one pot meal!

Put your oven on 350 degrees.  Go get your pan and put it on medium heat and add 1/4 cup of olive oil.  While that is getting hot, salt and pepper your chicken breast (or any chicken of your choice).  Remember do not not skimp on the seasoning.   The last thing you want to do is be in the kitchen all day to make something that doesn't have any flavor.   

Once your pan is hot place the chicken skin side down and cook 12 minutes on one side then flip for another 12 on the other.  I rotate my chicken every 4 minutes to ensure all my chicken is getting evenly browned.   Once the juices run clear place the chicken on a plate and set aside.   

To that same pan add 5 Hatch chiles, 3 minced cloves of garlic, 3 roma tomatoes and S&P.  Sauté until the skin is peeling from the tomatoes.  After about 10 minutes add 1/2 TB of saffron and 1 heaping TB of paprika.  Stir until tomatoes and peppers are completely coated.

Add 2 cups of long grain white rice.   Stir until rice is completely seasoned.  To that add 1/2 cup of white wine.  Let simmer for about 2 minutes then add a 4 cups of hot chicken broth, or stock.  Stir your rice then place a lid over this for 10 minutes.  You can stir it occasionally and it will not hurt the rice's feelings.  I promise.

Once your rice has absorbed most of the liquid but is not dry, place your chicken breast on top of it.  Place the lid on the pan once again and place in the oven for an additional 15 minutes.  This pan is awesome in the sense it can go from stove top to oven to table.  Do not just put just any pan in your oven be sure it is a multitasker!  If it is not I am sorry to say you do not qualify for a one pot meal so do not pass go and do not collect $100.  You will need to go ahead and get another pan out you can throw in the oven!

Once your timer has alerted you about your Paella being done pull it from the oven and lets plate.  You can cut up your chicken, or if you choose thighs, or legs go ahead and serve the chicken pieces whole.  It is whatever you want just as long as there is enough for everyone.  I add a few garnishes of italian parsley and lime wedges.  These are not just for show either.  Squeeze that lime all over your chicken and rice and take a bite and you will know exactly why I put it as a garnish =)  Enjoy!