Tonight was an experiment that didn’t quite go as planned. The burgers were fine but we need to work on our grilled/fried plantain chips. There was a bit of carbon on display but we learned that you can make plantain chips on the grill, they just take a lot less time than we thought. For the burgers:
1 lb ground bison
1 egg
chives (from the garden already)
salt
smoked mozzarella
Bison is a really lean meat so we think it needs an egg to make a good burger. Just mix the first 4 ingredients together and make about 5 patties (right now we are smash burger people). Grill about 3-4 minutes per side topping with sliced smoked mozzarella. Tonight we serve them with:
lettuce
tomato
parsley (from the garden already)
alfalfa sprouts
mayo
Sriracha
ketchup
For the plantain chips, we sliced 2 very ripe plantains and made foil packets with the plantains and canola oil. They only take about 10ish minutes flipping every few (not the 20 that I thought they would). Glad my wife checked or we would have had pure carbon.
Tonight was another of those choices you have to make in our family, do we make grilled chick or ribs? As usual, both were on sale this week so they were both sitting in the fridge. I was working from home so time was on our side but we ultimately chose the shorter and will put off the ribs to another day. My wife really likes when I make biscuits. For the grilled chicken, we first butchered a whole chicken into 12 pieces (4 wing pieces (putting the wing tip with the carcass for broth), 4 leg pieces, 4 breast pieces (separate the breast from the tenderloin), plus the carcass is in the freezer for broth. Simply marinade in olive oil, salt and pepper while you do everything else.
For the biscuits, my wife bought me a book by Dupree and Graubart that I have been using for all my biscuit recipes. We have tried a bunch of their recipes but have seemed to settle on the baking powder biscuits on page 54 as our go to biscuit with mixing of recommendations. For the biscuits
2 C. flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 C. veg shortening, cold
1/4 C. butter, cold
1 C milk/buttermilk (whatever you got works)
bit more flour for making it right
Mix the dry ingredients with a whisk. Add the shortening cut into little bits and finger snap the flour with the shortening. When there are no big clumps add the butter cut into 1/4 inch cubes our whatever your cooking partner throws at you. Snap the butter in until nothing is bigger than a pea size shaking to bring the big uns to the top. Here is were I differ from most of the recipes. Add the milk and with as little mixing a possible mix the milk into the flour/fat mixture. My goal is about 5 spatula rounds. I don’t knead but add a bit more flout depending on how sticky it is. I tend to err on the side wet biscuits. Cut into whatever shape you want and put into a 10 inch cast iron skillet. Preheat oven to 425 and cook rotating about every 5 minutes for about 15-20 minutes.
For the squash, the butternut was on sale but any sweet squash like acorn or pumpkin would work
1 butternut squash peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
glug of maple syrup
salt
Saute the squash in the olive oil with a cover until soft about 15-20 minutes. Add butter, syrup and salt and saute on medium-high for about 5-10 minutes until the right consistency and a bit crispy but not burnt.
For the chicken, just grill it over medium heat until cooked.
Not the prettiest plate but it was healthy. Tried the coconut rice again and some fresh snap peas with the haddock (on sale). My family really likes haddock compared to most other whitefish. Tonight there were two themes, lemon and coconut. It was 80 degrees as I drove home tonight so we did all we could to put this recipe on the grill to avoid heating up the house. The starting point, inside, was the rice. We have been experimenting lately with using coconut milk (the non-dairy substitute and not the super fatty curry) to cook the rice. Tonight we did:
1 C. jasmine rice
2 C. coconut milk beverage
garlic powder
salt
Cook like you would regular rice.
For the haddock
2 fillets haddock
olive oil
salt and pepper
garlic powder
1 lemon thinly sliced
Place some olive oil on alumium foil then the haddock and spices and top with lemon. Grill over medium high heat for about 10-15 minutes or until cooked.
For the snap peas:
1 lb snap peas
Grated lemon peel from 1 lemon (that you used for the fish)
salt and pepper
olive oil
Saute the peas with everything for about 5 minutes, flipping every 30 seconds so as not to burn.
It was an amazing day at the grocery store today when everything we love was on sale. This week is going to be fun. Tonight was a rare 75 degree day in April so we took full advantage and did as much as we could outside. I have never grilled short ribs but the store had the Asian style flaken cut (on sale) so we are game. We did a little marinade and paired it with some cauliflower fried “rice.” I finally figure out the difference between my family and me with regard to eating. I like big flavor and my family is super texture sensitive. These don’t work well with the cuts of meat that I have recently been buying. So, tonight may be a turning point to try to meld the two perspectives.
We made a nice Korean inspired marinade with:
4ish lb. of flaken cut beef short ribs
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C mirin
1/4 C rice vinegar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 head garlic finely minced
sweet soy sauce
garlic powder
sesame oil
gochujang
Mix all the marinade ingredients and add short ribs to a gallon ziploc for at least 4 hours. Preheat grill to medium high and cook about 3-5 minutes per side. Let rest for at least 15 minutes.
For the fried “rice”
1 head cauliflower, minced in food processor
2 glugs canola oil
1/4 C frozen peas
1/4 C frozen corn
1 carrot, grated
2 eggs
1/4 C sugar
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp salt
Whisk together eggs, sugar, vinegar, and salt. Heat a frying pan super hot with canola oil. Add egg mixture and make a pseudo omelette. Remove from pan and slice. Add some more canola oil and the cauliflower. Let cook and get some color before touching. We let it cook about 5 minutes before touching and stir. Do it again 5 minutes later. Add the rest of the ingredients and saute 5 more minutes. Add sliced eggs and cook to blend. Season how you like with some soy sauce and sweet soy sauce.
Serve the fried “rice” with the short ribs and top with some thinly sliced green onions. Enjoy but keep an eye out for fat and bones.
My wife saw a pheasant in the freezer case last weekend when we were grocery shopping so we just had to buy it. My dad is a big hunter and he used to give us some of his pheasant whenever we would visit. Now that we live across the country, that doesn’t happen any more. So when we saw it in the store, we had to try it out. Not as good as the wild birds but satisfied the itch. Served it with some mashed potatoes and zucchini to round out my 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 approach that I am trying to get rid of.
For the pheasant:
1 pheasant, butchered into 10 pieces saving the carcass
olive oil
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 350. Put pheasant in a roasting pan and top with olive oil and salt and pepper. Cook for about 30-45 minutes or until done.
For the mashed potatoes:
1 lb small yellow potatoes, unpeeled
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp sour cream
salt and pepper
pheasant carcass
Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender. Remove the potatoes to a stand mixer being sure not to throw out the water. Mix with butter, sour cream, salt and pepper until smooth. With the residual water, throw in the carcass and simmer for about 45 minutes (while the pheasant cooks). Pour broth in wider pan to evaporate more quickly with a chicken bullion cube to give it a bit more flavor. When you family asks when dinner is ready, add some corn starch and cold water to thicken.
For the zucchini:
1 zucchini, sliced on mandolin
olive oil
dried oregano
dried basil
salt and pepper
Simple saute the zucchini in the olive oil and heard bur about 2-3 minutes. They were so thin that it was really just about warming them up.
It was a nice day so we broke out the grill for one of the first times this season. Chicken wings were on sale so there you have it. For the wings:
3 lbs chicken wings (so you have leftovers for lunch)
olive oil
garlic powder
salt and pepper
Throw everything in a bowl and mix around with your hands. Put in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Heat grill to medium and cook the wings. I tend to cook the wings very actively as there are a lot of hot spots/cold spots on our grill. It usually takes about 20 minutes to get them nice a crispy.
For the dipping sauces, we did a sour cream dill dip and a honey mustard sauce for the wings. For the sour cream dip:
1/2 C sour cream
5 sprigs dill, finely chopped
dried oregano
dried basil
garlic powder
salt and pepper
Mix everything together and adjust seasoning to you liking.
I think this weeks theme really is we bought some stuff with no plan and we are seeing what comes out. Tonight, the base was some frozen tortellini and we found some shishito peppers, sweet red peppers, green onions, and pecorino. Made a sauce out of some leftover chicken broth and sour cream.
handful shishito peppers, sliced
red pepper, diced
green onions, sliced
1 bag tortellini
1 C. chicken broth
2 Tbsp sour cream
Make the tortellini. Saute the peppers and onions. When mostly done, add the chicken broth. Concentrate it a bit and add the sour cream to cream it up. Mix in the cooked tortellini and serve with pecorino.
It was another of those clean out the fridge of some veggies night tonight. Saute some, pickle some, put over rice with some marinated meat, top with a fried duck egg and some sauces and I was a happy person. Here’s what we did. Pickle some cucumbers and carrots:
2 carrots, julienne
1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced
rice vinegar
mirin
Simply put everything so that about 50-50 mixture of vinegar and mirin to cover. Soak for about 30 minutes and remove from marinade to serve.
For the hot veg:
2 big handfuls spinach, finely sliced
1/2 red cabbage, finely sliced
1 inch ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
chicken broth
olive oil
In two batches, saute the spinach with ginger and garlic then the cabbage with ginger and garlic and chicken broth. Should only take a couple minutes for each but a little longer for the cabbage and chicken broth.
For the meat, we did an overnight marinade:
2 lb bottom round beef, thinly sliced
soy sauce
mirin
rice vinegar
garlic powder
dried basil
Marinade overnight and “grill” on indoor cast iron grilling pan in batches making sure not to crowd. Once done, rest for a bit and then thinly slice.
Fry a sunny side up duck egg for everyone making sure to leave it a bit running for some extra sauce. Serve with some rice and all the toppings with the duck egg on top. We served it with sriracha, hoisin, and soy sauce.
Tonight was clean out the fridge night without eating leftovers. There was some leftover sausage and ground beef, a half a cabbage, and a bunch of veg that needed to be eaten. In the cupboard were some udon noodles. Here’s what we threw together:
1 9.5 oz package Udon noodles, cooked 3/4 of the way
about 1 lb leftover ground beef and sausage
1/4 red cabbage, thinly sliced
2 carrots, grated
1 inch ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 large green onion, thinly sliced
1 C. chicken broth
soy sauce
olive oil
Cook the noodles to about 3/4 done and rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Heat the pan to medium-high and add all the veg with olive oil. Once it seems about halfway cooked add the meat, broth, and soy sauce and cook until meat is warmed. Add the noodles and cook until noodles are done. Should have added some spinach but forgot.
We served it with Fresno chilies, sriracha, and hoison.
I admit it, I like tater tots. It may be the Midwesterner finally coming home to roost but darn they are good. We thought it would be nice enough to grill tonight but the wind really picked up so we are stuck with pan cooked salmon burgers. To make the burgers:
1 lb. salmon
onion powder
garlic powder
ground mustard
fenugreek powder
1 egg
bread crumbs
Simply skin and coarsely chop the salmon and put in a food processor with everything but the bread crumbs. Pulse a few times and slowly add the breadcrumbs to get the consistency you want. Then, with wet hands, form into about 4 patties. Pan fry until desired doneness and serve with toppings. For us that was:
