Barbacoa Tacos

I've never met a taco I didn't like.  I think tacos may be my 2nd favorite food after pizza, really. Soft, crispy, puffy, vegetarian, and meat filled, I love them all! So it's no surprise that I quickly began craving tacos once I came back from my trip to North Carolina,  mostly in part by the fact that I had some bomb ass mini barbacoa tacos at a baby shower! Homemade, straight out of a dutch oven, topped with crispy slaw, and wrapped in a tiny little flour tortilla. Super adorable and extra easy to eat way more than one.

A hunk of roast made it quickly onto my shopping list, along with slaw, onions, and smoky chipotle peppers. I started the roast with a sear in the pan and let it do it's thing in the slow cooker.  The barbacoa is spicy and smokey from the different peppers and so tender from hours in the slow cooker.  The tangy and crispy slaw is perfect for these tacos, topped with cool, greek yogurt and creamy avocado.  Oh my gosh, yum.  Make these!

Barbacoa Tacos

(feeds an army)

1 tbs olive oil
2 lbs roast
sea salt
coarse black pepper
1 medium onion thinly sliced
2 large dried peppers (sold in bulk bins and are shriveled up dried red/black looking peppers)
3-4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 jalapeno, roughly chopped
2 tbs minced garlic
1 cup chicken stock
juice of one lime
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Slaw:
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup ready made coleslaw, no mayo
3 tbs red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
3 tbs water

Toppings: slaw, sliced avocado, Greek yogurt, limes

Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a skillet.  Dry the roast thoroughly and sprinkle all sides with sea salt and black pepper patting it in.  Place the roast in the skillet and do not touch!  Let it get a good sear and then flip for the other side.  Make sure to sear all sides of the roast.

As the roast sears, add sliced onions and dried peppers in crockpot.  In a blender, blend the chipotle peppers, jalapeno pepper, garlic, lime juice, and chicken stock.

Add seared roast on top of the onions and dried peppers.  Pour chicken stock mixture over the roast and place lid on slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, the roast should be falling apart tender.  Shred the meat with a fork and get it all in the sauce, add chopped cilantro, and continue on warm as you get the fixings ready.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Slaw:

Toss red onions with coleslaw, red wine vinegar, sugar, and water.

We had our tacos on fresh made wheat tortillas, and all the toppings listed with a sprinkle of cilantro and a squeeze of lime.

Enjoy!!

Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup) & Curry Brown Butter Grilled Cheese

Oh myyyyyy, flavor explosion in my mouth!  A hot bowl of spicy, rich coconut soup served alongside bomb-diggity grilled cheese using brown butter seasoned with curry powder.  One of my absolute favorite dinners ever.  Sometimes I just need to give myself a pat on the back.

Please make this tomorrow.  Granted, you must like thai food and cheese and butter.  I mean, cheese. CHEESE.

I almost always order a bowl of Tom Kha from this Thai restaurant in Houston and eat it up with rice.  It's great Thai style comfort food.  I grew up eating my mom's chicken soup with fried rice mixed in and people thought it was weird.  It's not weird.  Don't make people feel weird about what they eat.  Back to the soup, Tom Kha is full of flavor from the lemon grass, ginger, and red curry paste.  There's no need for salt or black pepper in this recipe. I used the curry paste as a cheat because I could not find the galangal and kaffir lime leaves that give this soup it's signature taste.  The red curry paste includes these two ingredients.  Granted, I could have made an extra stop to the Asian market on my way, but I didn't want to.  All the ingredients listed in this recipe can be found at your grocery store.

Feel free to omit the chicken from the soup if you would like to make the soup vegetarian.  Add some extra veggies like sliced red bell pepper, or snap peas, or even tofu to make up for the chicken.  It's a great flavorful soup with an added richness from the coconut milk.  Use fresh ingredients and a good chicken stock. Or vegetable stock.  I adapted the recipe for the soup from Bon Appetit, best foodie resource ever.

Instead of rice, I decided on grilled cheese because cravings.  I upped the ante on the grilled cheese by making a batch of browned butter seasoned with curry powder that was used to coat the inside and outside of the sandwich.  I'll probably use the leftover butter to make my eggs tomorrow morning.  Butter is a good fat.  I hope you all know this.  Moderation is key.

Tom Kha Gai (adapted from Bon Appetit)

2 stalks lemongrass, woody leaves discarded, cut into large chunks

1 in. piece of ginger, peeled, cut in half
1 thai pepper, sliced in half lengthwise
zest and juice of 3 limes
4 cups chicken broth
1 lb. sliced chicken breast
oyster mushrooms, sliced thin
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tbs Thai red curry paste
1 13.5 oz can coconut milk (full-fat)
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
cilantro, chili oil, lime wedges (garnish)

Bring to a boil the chicken broth with the lemongrass, ginger, thai pepper, lime zest, and lime juice.  Once boiling, bring down the heat and allow the broth to simmer for 15 minutes.  This will allow all the good stuff to get infused in the broth.

Drain the broth through a sieve/colander into another heat proof bowl.  Discard the chunks.  Carefully transfer the broth into the pot and place back on the heat.

Add the sliced chicken and bring the broth back to a boil.  Add mushrooms, tomatoes, and curry paste and let all of this simmer for 30 minutes so the flavors come together.

Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, and brown sugar.  Allow this to simmer for a few minutes.  Serve hot with cilantro, lime wedges, and chili oil.  Enjoy!

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Curry Brown Butter Grilled Cheese

4 tbs unsalted butter
1 tsp curry powder
4 slices sourdough
4 slices Muenster cheese

In a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add butter, let it melt and foam up. Begin whisking continuously until the butter takes on a dark yellow tinge and smells nutty. Once you see the brown bits appear, add curry powder and whisk for 15 seconds. Take the saucepan off the heat and continue to whisk.  

Using a brush, brush on the seasoned butter on one side of all the bread slices. Or use a spoon to drizzle on the slices. Add 1 slice of cheese to each slice of bread. Assemble the sandwiches. Brush one side of the bread with the browned butter and grill over medium heat until crispy. While the buttered side cooks, brush the top of the sandwich with butter. Flip and cook other side until crisp and cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Best Ever Chocolate Nutella Mug Cake

Tonight I am featuring two blog posts, dessert AND dinner for you hungry readers!  I had some fun experimenting in the kitchen tonight and both turned out delicious, so I wanted to share it with you all!  Plus I have messages from friends asking for the recipes, NOW.

We wanted something sweet post dinner and since we are both trying super hard not to leave the cookie jar full of Girl Scout cookies empty, I opted for something small.  Not sure if it was the healthiest thing, but it was a small amount of cake that was just right to satisfy our sweet tooth without feeling guilty.  Plus I threw on some strawberries and blackberries.  Boom. Fruit.

I've made a mug cake before, but it turned out dense and chewy, and frankly, not good.  But I really wanted cake tonight and something quick, so I did some research and found a couple of helpful tips!  Use self rising flour for best results and instead of splitting an egg, use the whole egg and make 2 cakes.  Both of these together will yield fluffy, light, and chocolate-y cakes.  And the best tip of all, ALWAYS USE NUTELLA. Because, it's Nutella.

This recipe makes enough for 2, perfect for sharing.  Or don't share.  I don't judge.

Chocolate Nutella Mug Cake

2 tbs vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup self rising flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbs cocoa powder
1/4 cup chocolate chips of choice
2 tsp Nutella
Sliced berries, garnish, optional

Whisk vegetable oil, milk, egg, and vanilla.  Add flour, sugar, and cocoa powder and mix well.  In 2 mugs, evenly distribute chocolate chips and pour in the cake batter evenly into both mugs.  Add 1 tsp each of Nutella into each mug.

Heat both mug cakes in the microwave for 90 seconds on "high".  Check cakes after 90 seconds and if cake springs back when touching it, they are ready!  If not, heat on 15 second intervals until cooked through.

Garnish with sliced berries and ENJOY!

Spicy Shrimp & Beef Sausage Gumbo

As I write up this post, I keep getting distracted by watching House of Cards, but I really need to post something!  House of Cards, watch it.

Going to New Orleans in a few weeks and as I looked up restaurants and things to do, I kept running across gumbo on restaurant menus.  Well, hello there craving!  Might as well get the NOLA party started in our stomachs!

This recipe is quick, hearty, and spicy. A very big taste of Cajun!

Truth be told, I kind of just threw whatever I had into the pot. Like all my recipes, you can delete or add any sort of meat, or add additional vegetables.

Spicy Shrimp & Beef Sausage Gumbo

1 tbs. vegetable oil

1 cup sliced beef sausage, preferably organic to keep it clean
1 sliced jalapeno, with/without seeds/membrane (controls spice level)
1 tbs. butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 small onion, diced
1 large bell pepper, diced
2 ribs celery, sliced
2 tbs. minced garlic
3 cups seafood broth
1/2 lb okra, sliced
1 large tomato, diced
2 bay leaves
red chili flakes
1 tbs. dried parsley
sea salt
black pepper
hot sauce
1 tsp. Worcestershire
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
cajun seasoning
dark chili powder

Toss shrimp with cajun seasoning and dark chili powder. Set aside.

Heat a large cast iron, or regular, pot over medium heat.  Add vegetable oil.  Once hot, add sausage slices and jalapenos. Cook until the sausage has browned.  Scoop out the sausage and jalapenos and set aside in a bowl.

To the same pot with sausage drippings, add the butter. Sprinkle in flour and whisk continuously until it smells nutty and turns a dark brown color.  This is your roux!  Keep a close eye on it.  It can go from a dark, pretty color to burned within seconds.

Add the onion, garlic, bell pepper, and celery.  Make them nice and coated in the roux and cook until vegetables have softened a bit.

Add broth and whisk to dissolve the roux.  Add in the okra, tomatoes, bay leaves, chili flakes, parsley, sea salt, black pepper, a few dashes of hot sauce, and Worcestershire.  Feel free to taste and add seasonings as you wish.  If you are new to my blog, I do not add measurements for seasoning.  I realize this is a huge blogger faux paux.

Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.  Add sausage and stir.  Cover pot and let cook for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.  Use this time to cook up your rice of choice.  We cooked brown basmati rice.

After 30 minutes of simmering, add the seasoned shrimp to the gumbo, stir, and cover pot.  Cook until the shrimp has turned opaque.  Once cooked, check for seasoning.

Serve over rice and let your taste buds be transported to the great city of New Orleans!  Enjoy!

Sunshine Lemon Tart

Days like yesterday where the weather is too cold for Texas and no sunshine in sight, all I wanted to do was eat and be cozy.  These dreary days can take a toll on my cheeriness and happy all the time attitude, so I look for pick me ups to get me back to a good place!  If there is no sunshine outside, I'll bring it inside my kitchen.  I got a craving for something lemon-y and a desire to make something I have never attempted...a lemon tart.

This lemon tart was the perfect dessert!  A bright, sweet, and tart creamy lemon filling over a shortbread crust warmed with cardamom to give it that "winter" feel.  I use cardamom whenever I can!  I put it in my chai while it boils, in my Pakistani version of coffee, and any dessert that needs a bit of this warm spice. The tart is then topped off with a dollop of fresh whipped vanilla cream and eaten happily in bed watching TV and snuggling.

Sunshine Lemon Tart

Shortbread Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tbs ground cardamom
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

Lemon Filling:

6 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, about 3 small lemons
2 large eggs
1 tbs grated lemon zest

Vanilla Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy cream, cold
2 tbs powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Shortbread Crust:

Prepare a 8"-9" tart pan, pie pan, or any pan (I used a 9" cake pan) with vegetable oil or spray.

Combine flour, powdered sugar, ground cardamom, and salt.  Add butter and work in the butter until the crust begins to form large chunks and comes together. You can use a food processor for this, however, since ours is on the fritz, I just used my fingers to work the butter into the flour.

Add the crust into your pan and evenly press it into pan so it reaches the edges and up the sides a bit. You can smooth out the crust with the back of a spoon.  Pierce the bottom of the crust with a fork, cover the pan and place in the freezer to set for 15 minutes.  This will prevent puffing of the crust and the crust from shrinking.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, place the pan on top of a baking sheet and bake 15 minutes until the crust is a golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Decrease the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Lemon Filling:

In a blender, process the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the sugar and process until incorporated.  Add the eggs and process until combined.  Add the lemon juice and lemon zest and process until well blended and smooth.

Pour filling into the pre-baked crust and bake 25-30 minutes.  Transfer the tart to a wire rack and let cool. Cover and refrigerate until well set chilled, at least an hour.

Vanilla Whipped Cream:

Place your mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for about 15 minutes.  Pour in the whipping cream and powdered sugar and whip on high speed until almost stiff.  Add vanilla and whip until stiff peaks are formed. Spread on tart, or add a dollop to individual slices and store the rest in a sealed container in the fridge.

Slice a huge slice for yourself, add a dollop of cream, and garnish with a thin slice of lemon.  ENJOY!

Baked Fish and Chips

Hope all of you are keeping warm in this polar vortex!  Houston has been warm one day, ice day the next. Story of Houstonian's lives...all we can do is just adapt daily and hope that one of those days will at least give us a good hair day!

A couple times of year I get intense cravings for fish and chips.  The beer battered fried goodness is perfect with a splash of malt vinegar, good tartar sauce, and a generous helping of chips.  My mouth waters even as I wrote that sentence. Although these fried fishies are crazy delicious, they are not so kind to my insides (or outsides).

Which brings me to this meal of BAKED fish and chips.  No deep frying, no smelly oil permeating through your home, and no guilt.  These fish are baked with a crispy panko coating served alongside some baked chips that are simply tossed in olive and sea salt. A side of crispy veggies and tangy sweet tartar sauce, you have a delicious and healthy meal that can't be found in some British pub!

I used cod, since that was what was on sale at the grocers and it was wild caught from the USofA.  The key to good fish and chips is a firm white fish, so use cod, haddock, halibut, flounder, or even tilapia.  Whatever you use, make sure it's fresh and preferably wild caught and not farm raised.

Baked Chips:

Potatoes tossed w/ olive oil, herbs, & sea salt

1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes

1 tbs. olive oil

fresh herbs (whatever strikes your fancy)

sea salt

Slice potatoes very thin and soak in warm water for 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Drain potatoes and dry THOROUGHLY!  This is important for crispy chips. Toss the potatoes with olive oil, herbs, and as much sea salt as you wish.  Spread the potatoes out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and place on the top rack in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.



As the chips are baking, work on your fish.

Seasoned cod fillets

Baked Panko Crusted Fish and Tartar Sauce:

1 1/2 lbs firm, white fish

2 cups panko breadcrumbs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tbs chili powder

1 tbs ground black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp sea salt

2 eggs

sea salt

coarse black pepper

1/2 cup mayo with olive oil

2 sweet gherkins, chopped

1 tbs chopped dill

hot sauce

zest of one lemon

juice of 1/2 lemon

sea salt

coarse black pepper

Spread panko crumbs onto another rimmed baking sheet and pop into the oven on the bottom rack.  Toast for 5 minutes until golden brown.

Meanwhile, rinse and dry your fish and cut into appropriate sizes.  Season with salt and pepper on both sides of the fish.

Now let's prepare your assembly line!  Take out your panko crumbs and place into a deep dish.  Prepare the flour mixture by combining the flour with the chili powder, black pepper, garlic powder, and sea salt. Beat the eggs in a separate dish. Prepare a baking sheet with a layer of parchment paper and a spray of oil for your fish.

The order for the fish will be to cover in flour, dip in egg, cover in panko crumbs.  Place on prepared baking sheet.

BACK TO THE CHIPS:  Reduce oven heat to 350, flip the chips and place this baking sheet on the bottom rack.  Keep an eye on the chips and bake until they have browned and crisped up.

Place fish on the top rack and bake until the fish are cooked through, about 20 minutes.

As the fish bake, prepare your tartar sauce.  Combine the mayo with the chopped sweet gherkins, dill, a few splashes of hot sauce, lemon zest, and juice of half a lemon. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir until everything is contributed and place in fridge until ready to use.  Soooo much tastier than that bottle of mediocrity you find at the grocery store!

Tartar sauce

Take out the crispy fish and chips and serve with slices of lemon, tartar sauce, and some crisp vegetables.  ENJOY!!

Fried Apple Hand Pies

Happy National Pie Day friends!!! In celebration I bring you a fried hand pie recipe!

I LOVE pie. My favorite pie is apple.  It's comforting, warm, flaky, spiced, and perfect with a scoop of ice cream of course!  These hand pies remind me of the pies we used to ask my mom to buy from the grocery store that were packaged in wax paper and tasted the best when warmed up in the microwave for 30 seconds.  You know what I'm talking about right?  There was apple, cherry, chocolate, pineapple, etc.  I haven't had one of those probably since high school and now that I stay away from processed food as much as possible, I figured I can make my own version!

As mentioned in a previous post, I find making my own pie crust very intimidating and have never attempted, so naturally I thought I would maybe just go buy a pie crust and make these little pies for dessert.  But I left work, the temperature had dropped like 20 degrees and there was that super annoying misty rain and I just wanted to go home.  No stops.  So, finally, I ended up attempting pie crust from scratch, and for a first try, I think it went well!  Please don't let making pie crust be intimidating!  It was actually quite easy and I thought fried up well for this recipe.  If I can do it, you can do it.

Feel free to change up the filling as you wish!  As I said, apple is my personal favorite, but you can do cherry, peach, strawberry, whatever your heart desires!  I'm sure savory fillings would be great and handy for a lunch or breakfast on the go.

I hope that you try this recipe and it brings with it warm feelings of childhood.

Pie Crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, cold
2 eggs, beaten in separate bowls
1 cup buttermilk

Combine flour, sugar, and salt.  Cut butter into small pieces and add to the flour mixture.  Work the butter into the flour with your hands until the flour is coarse and resembles sand. Add 1 beaten egg and stir gently with a fork.  Add buttermilk and gently stir until combined and comes together into a soft dough.  Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator for at least a hour.

As the pie crust sits, make the pie filling.

Apple Pie Filling: for two

1 apple, peeled and chopped
3 tbs. brown sugar
cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp. vanilla

In a small pot, over medium heat, toss together the apple chunks, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice.  Heat until the mixture boils and thickens.  Take off heat and add vanilla.

Hand Pie Assembly:

Beat the 2nd egg in a small bowl.  Take dough out of the refrigerator and pull off a 1/4 of the dough and place the rest back in the refrigerator, or freeze.  Roll out the dough on a floured surface into a thin rectangle. Take a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut out a large rectangle and then cut the rectangle in half to make 2 thinner rectangles. Set aside the scraps so you are only left with the 2 rectangles.

Add a generous dollop of filling to the end of each rectangle leaving the edges free.  Brush on the egg around all 4 edges.  Fold over the top of each rectangle over the pie filling and to the opposite edge.  Gently press the edges down to seal the pies.  Dip a fork into some flour and press it along the edges of the pies to extra seal.

Place the pies in the refrigerator for about 15 min to set.

Heat enough oil in a pot to deep fry the pies.  Add a pinch of dough to the oil and if it immediately begins to sizzle and float to the top, the oil is ready.  Or wait until it reaches 350 degrees on a thermometer.  Carefully add one or both hand pies (depending on how much room there is in the pot) and cook until golden brown, 3-4 minutes, turning halfway.

Drain the pies on paper towels and sprinkle with lots of powdered sugar and ENJOY!