Sloppy Joes

Thanks to Adam Sandler and his lyrical genius the Sloppy Joe has sort of gotten a bad rap over the years.  Come to think of it, I actually don’t remember ever having Sloppy Joes in the school cafeteria so I don’t have that negative association.   

My mom used to make Sloppy Joes by simply browning meat, then adding 2 jars of Heinz Chili Sauce and sweet relish.  I of course began adding onion, garlic and other spices.  Then after moving overseas I haven’t been able to find Heinz Chili Sauce, so I worked out this pretty good version here after a bit of trial and error.

I find this to be a quick and easy dinner that I can turn to when I don’t really feel like cooking.

Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:

1 lb. Ground beef, turkey, lamb, pork or veggie crumbles

1 white onion – diced

3 cloves garlic - minced

3 stalks of celery diced

1 bell pepper - diced

2 12oz. cans of tomatoes (puréed)

2 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 tablespoon sweet pickle juice

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder  

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon salt  

½ cup ketchup

4 Sweet and sour pickles – minced (or 2 tablespoon sweet relish)

Hamburger Buns

Process:

Brown ground meat in a skillet over medium high heat.

Add the onions after the meat is about ½ way done.

Cook until the onions begin to wilt then add the garlic, celery, and bell pepper and cook the mixture for approx. 2 minutes.  

Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Simmer for 20 minutes giving the flavors a bit of time to meld.  If the mixture is a little too runny, blend 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon flour, then add to the Sloppy Joes while they are still simmering

Toast the hamburger buns with a little butter and garlic salt.

Serve as an open faced sandwich with your favorite vegetables.

Enjoy!

¡Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo is the holiday in which friends, meet at a Mexican Restaurant drink way too many Coronas, XX, and margaritas.  It’s interesting to note that Cinco de Mayo isn't a major holiday in Mexico, and despite the popular misconception it is not the celebration of Mexico’s Independence from Spain. Mexico’s Independence Day is observed of September 16 every year, and should also be celebrated with copious amounts of tequila and Mexican beer throughout the United States.

Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of the Battle of Puebla that occurred on May 5, 1862.  The Battle marked a Mexican victory against French forces on Mexican soil.  Now this bloody battle gives many Americans an excuse to drink too much and eat too much Mexican food at the beginning of May.

We've decided that we need to celebrate the holiday here by cooking up a batch of beef and chicken fajitas.  We found a Mexican music station on Direct TV and invited a couple of friends over and celebrated the Battle of Puebla in style (as stylish as we could here in Ojeda).

Fajitas

1 lb skirt steak

1 lb boneless chicken breasts

1 red bell pepper – sliced into strips

1 green bell pepper - sliced into strips

1 onion - sliced into strips

Marinade –

½ cup of tequila

1 tablespoon corn oil

Juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon soy sauce

½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Process:

Mix the marinade and divide into two zip-lock bags.  Place the beef into one bag and the boneless chicken breast into the other.  Allow to marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

There are two ways to prepare the meat; either on a grill or on the stove top.  Since this is a work night, we have opted to prepare the fajitas on the stove top.

Heat a little corn oil in a frying pan over medium – high heat and sear the beef for 2 minutes on both sides of the meat.  Then transfer and wrap in aluminum foil and allow to rest.

Bring the pan up to temperature again and place the chicken breast in the skillet.  Cook 4 minutes per side, then allow to rest in and aluminum pouch.  Keep the meat warm in an oven set at 200° until you are ready to serve.

Add some of the beef marinade to the pan, heat and add the onions and sauté.  After they begin to wilt (approx. 3 minutes) add the peppers and cook an additional 3 minutes.  Wrap in aluminum foil and place in the oven with the meat until you are ready to serve.

Before serving slice the meat into thin strips.  With the beef make sure that you slice the meat against the grain.  This will ensure that the meat is good and tender in your fajita tacos.

When ready, open up the packets of meat and vegetable goodness and serve with Spanish Rice, Refried Beans, Chile con Queso, Tortillas, and Guacamole.

Peruvian Style Guacamole

2 large ripe avocados 

1 tablespoon Mayonnaise

½ onion – minced

2 cloves garlic – minced

1 tablespoon minced cilantro

1 pepper (varies by what’s available) I’m using an aji dulce cleaned and minced

Juice of 1 Lime

Adobo seasoning to taste

Process;

Peel and roughly chop the avocados.

Blend the avocados with the mayonnaise and lime juice until smooth

Add the minced onion, garlic, cilantro, and pepper and mix them into the mixture.

Mix everything together until is is a little delectable concoction.

The lime juice should be enough to keep the guacamole form turning brown, but if you would like to place the pit of one of the avocados in the guacamole it will serve as insurance against browning.

 ¡Buen provecho!

*Everything else made for this meal can be found under the Taco* Night posting from April 23

Big 'ol Breakfast

Breakfast has got to be one of our favorite meals of the day.  While we have our two favorite breakfast spots in Houston; The Buffalo Grill and The 59 Diner, we really never found a special place in either Peru or in Venezuela (I do keep my fingers crossed that we can find a good breakfast in Kazakhstan though).   In South America, breakfast really isn't as hearty as it is in the United States.  We never found a place in Peru that could live up to our expectations, although the French Toast at La Baguette wasn’t bad and the empanadas from Don Mario’s Panaderia were phenomenal.  

Here in Venezuela the arepa is king.  An arepa is similar to a disk of cornbread that is either cooked on a flat top griddle, fried, or, for the health conscious, baked.  For breakfast, these are usually cut down the middle and stuffed with your choice of filling.  The fillings I’ve seen have ranged from egg and ham, egg and hotdog, canned mussels, crab and egg, carne mechada (my personal favorite), or a combination of all of these things.  These are good, but once again it just doesn’t match up to a North American Breakfast.

Once a week I try to make a good U.S. style breakfast.  Whether it is French toast, pancakes, biscuits, breakfast burritos, or today’s simple yet hearty breakfast; bacon, hash browns, fried eggs, and toast.

Bacon

Many people microwave their bacon and some even bake it.  In my personal opinion there is only one way to cook bacon and that is in a frying pan.

I begin by placing my bacon in a cold frying pan.

Then I turn the heat on medium.  This allows the bacon begin to slowly cook and release it’s excess fat.

 

Once the bacon begins to curl and there is a nice layer of bacon grease in the bottom of the pan I flip the bacon and allow it to cook until it is just right.  Usually until the remaining fat on the bacon has become a golden brown color.

I then take the bacon and place it on a cooling rack and place it in an oven set at 200° until it is time to serve it.

Be sure to save the bacon drippings, blending just a little with your olive oil will add a lot of flavor to your other dishes

Hash Browns

1 large potato

1 medium onion

1 medium bell pepper (red is my personal favorite)

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon bacon fat

1 teaspoon Adobo Seasoning

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Process:

Cut the potato into ¼ inch cubes.

Soak in water in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes

Coarsely chop the onion and the bell pepper, reserve for later.

Heat olive oil and bacon fat over medium high heat.

Pour the water off of the potatoes and pat dry.

Add the potatoes to the heated oil and cook until the potatoes are about ½ way cooked stiring occasionally (approx. 5 minutes.)

Add the onion and cook for an additional 3 minutes or until the onions begin to become translucent.

Add the red pepper and cook 3 more minutes.  (This will ensure that the pepper retains some crispness)

Take off of the heat and add the spices, toss to coat. 

Place the hash browns in a pan and place in the oven with the bacon to keep it warm.

Fried Eggs (over-easy)

2 eggs per person

½ teaspoon bacon fat (or non stick cooking spray if you have it)

Process:

Heat pan over medium-high heat and add oil.

Once the pan and oil are hot crack the eggs and place in the pan.  Cook the eggs until the white part becomes almost solid.  Carefully fold the egg over and cook for a moment or two.

Take the eggs off of the heat being extra careful not to break the yolk and place on a plate.

*for over-medium allow the yolk to cook part way or for over-hard cook until the yolk is solid

**for sunny side up simply do not flip the egg and cook until the white is solid

Place the hash browns, toast and bacon on the plate with the eggs and you have a nice hearty American style breakfast!

                                      
 Enjoy!

Pan-Seared Chicken Breast with Mushroom Alfredo Pasta

Tonight I tried doing something a little different.  We’ve had a whole lot of beef the past week, so I was thinking that chicken would be a nice change of pace.  They also had some nice button mushrooms at the grocery store.  I also had quite a bit of parmesan cheese I needed to use that I had picked up at the store last week.  So I tried a pan-seared chicken breast with a mushroom Alfredo sauce and pasta.   

Alfredo Sauce has always held a special place in the heart.  The first time I made it, I made it for my parents’ anniversary.  I used shrimp, crawfish tails, and imitation crab meat, I created a dish that bore a resemblance to Seafood Alfredo that didn’t use a pre-made mix or a jar of sauce, and I was quite proud of myself.  Anytime I needed a make a “fancy” quick dinner I would turn to Seafood Alfredo.

When Reada and I started dating, on our 4^th date she invited me to her house to cook for her.  I left early and went to HEB’s Central Market to shop for ingredients.  After wandering the store for the better part of an hour I decided on shrimp Alfredo and salad.  I went to her condo and begin preparing diner in her tiny kitchen.  The air conditioner wasn’t working very well and the heat from 2 burners and the oven being on was a bit much to take.  My forehead looked like a televangelist in the middle of a particularly powerful fire and brimstone style sermon.  I was dripping with sweat, I actually think I had soaked through my shirt in a couple of spots, but the sauce turned out to be quite tasty.  It also turned into the first of many meals that I would make for her. 

Pan-Seared Chicken Breast

2 Chicken breasts butterflied and cut in half

Olive oil

½ cup flour

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Process:

Preheat oven to 300°F.

Heat olive oil in pan heavy frying pan over medium-high heat.

Blend flour and Italian Spices.

Dredge the chicken breast in flour place in hot pan and pan fry until golden brown.  Approx.  4 minutes per side.  

When finished, take it out of the oil, place it on a rack on top of a baking sheet and place in the oven to finish cooking (20 minutes),

Mushroom Alfredo Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium yellow onion – minced

4 cloves of garlic – minced

½ kilo mushrooms (Baby Bellas or Button)- sliced

½ cup white wine

¼ cup heavy cream

¾ cup whole milk

1 cup parmesan cheese (grated)

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

Heat olive oil and butter in sauce pan over medium heat.

Add the mushrooms and sauté for 3 minutes.

Add the onions and garlic, sauté for 2 more minute

Add the white wine and simmer for 5 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by ½

Add cream and milk and allow to simmer, then blend thoroughly and simmer for 5 additional minutes.

While the mixture is simmering blend the remaining butter and flour until it makes a nice paste.

Slowly add the parmesan cheese to the cream, wine and mushroom mixture.  Constantly whisk the sauce until most of it is incorporated into the sauce.  (There will still be a little cheese clumped to the whisk, this is normal and is nothing to worry about.)

Once the cheese is 75% incorporated add the butter and flour paste while continuing to whisk the sauce until it is smooth creamy mixture.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with a pan seared chicken breast, pasta, garlic bread and a simple green salad. 

Enjoy!