Working Dad Cooks

Grilled Stromboli

When I asked the family what they wanted for dinner, one said something on the grill and the other said calzones. As a compromise we settled on grilled stromboli. We have done pizza on the grill a bunch of times but had never done stromboli or calzones. It seemed to go over pretty well. For the dough:

2 C. warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
5 C flour
glug of olive oil

Proof the yeast in the water and sugar and wait about 5-10 minutes so it is nice and bubbly. Add about half the flour and mix until incorporated. Add the rest of the flour and knead until it has a nice shimmery texture about 10-15 minutes. Rub the dough in olive oil, put in a bowl and cover for about 1 hour. After about an hour, divide into 4 equal pieces and make into a ball. Set aside for about 1 hour, covered. Now you are ready to make stromboli. While the dough was proofing, we made a quick sausage because we had some ground pork that needed to be used:

1 lb ground pork
fennel seed
garlic powder
dried basil
salt and pepper

Mix everything up and saute to cook. For the other ingredients:

1 lb ground beef, cooked
Soppresetta
smoked mozzarella
Goat gouda
fresh basil
green onions

We did various combinations of the ingredients to make four different strombolis. To grill, have a medium-hot side and a cool side. Put stromboli on the hot side for about 5-7 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom. Here’s what it will look like:

Flip and cook another 5 minutes on the hot side, them move to the cool side and indirectly cook for about 10 minutes using the hot side to cook the other two. This worked out great and will definitely be in our summer rotation. We simply served it with some warmed marinara that we bought at the store.

Texas-style chili with linguine

I had a late meeting tonight so my beautiful wife made her famous linguine with chili. This is a great way to have a healthy dinner without a lot of trouble. The chili was:

ground bison
garlic, sliced
olive oil
salt
1 big can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
3 Tbsp fresh oregano
chili powder
cayenne
onion powder
ground mustard
sweet paprika
2 Tbsp sour cream

Saute garlic and bison in olive oil til brown. Once browned add tomatoes and smush around. Add kidney beans including water and cook for a bit. Add the herbs and spices and cook for about 30 minutes. Add sour cream and turn off heat and let sit for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the linguine according to package directions. Add linguine to chili to get flavors melded. Serve in bowls with a little romano.

Lamb, squash and rice

Three days ago I wrote the words, lamb, squash, and rice on the menu for tonight. Today, I have no idea what was in my head three days ago so making the best of what I think I was thinking. It is kind of like playing “Chopped” with yourself from three days ago. What came out was a nice combination but still in the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 vein. Maybe some day I will remember what I was thinking. First bit was to cook the squash, we bought a butternut squash last time and why not just peal it, slice it, and bake it with some salt. 350 degree oven and 30 minutes later, done. Next for the rice:

1/2 onion, diced
1 C. Basmati rice
2 C. chicken broth
turmeric
garlic powder
dried basil
1 C. frozen peas
Salt and pepper

Saute the onion until translucent, add rice to toast. Once fragrant, add broth and spices. Simmer about 10ish minutes. Add the peas and simmer until tender. Done.

We picked up some super thinly sliced lamb at the Asian market the other day so I thought a quick saute with a bit of salty, herby sauce.

1 lb thinly sliced lamb
soy sauce
olive oil
garlic powder
mirin
rice wine vinegar
dried basil

Simply saute the lamb and then add the sauce and cook until a good consistency.

Vermicelli, chicken and salad

There was a little stand outside of Boulder Mountaineer when I was in grad school that had this awesome vermicelli, chicken, and salad deal for $5 in the late 90’s or early 00’s. What you got was a huge serving of vermicelli, about 1 1/2 chicken thighs, a salad, and the most amazing dressing. I tried to revisit my 20’s tonight and it was a great success. It was also the first spring day to light up the grill. It was a great afternoon of lounging in the backyard while listening to children running amok in the neighborhood. We marinated the chicken, made a dressing and made salad stuff so that everyone could make their own salad. For the marinade:

4 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, minced
good glug of fish sauce
soy sauce
olive oil
mirin
honey
rice vinegar

Throw about 1.5 lbs in the marinade for a couple hours. Meanwhile, make a dressing that is similar:

1 clove garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, minced
1 lime, juiced
1 C. water
1 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp sugar
1 carrot, grated
1 Thai chile, diced

Make some vermicelli, slide some veg for a salad:

2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
5 radishes, thinly sliced
cilantro
1 red pepper, diced
cilantro
huge green onion, thinly sliced
Romaine lettuce, thinly sliced

Put in a bowl:

Vemicelli
Salad
Top with chicken
Serve with dressing

It did what I wanted it to do. I relived grad school from my backyard.

Toltott Kaposzta: Stuffed Cabbage

My wife wanted her mother’s cooking tonight so we made stuffed cabbage. It wasn’t a perfect replication but when a northern European mutt tries to make Eastern European food, we do our best. The tastes were much more Spanish and Portuguese then Hungarian. Here’s what we did:

1 head cabbage (but more especially in the spring)
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 onion, diced
cumin
coriander
fenugreek powder
garlic powder
sweet paprika
smoked paprika
salt and pepper
2 eggs
2 C. cooked rice (2/3 of 1 C. rice cooked in 2 C. water with olive oil and salt)
Roasted red pepper
1 big can tomato puree

Boil the head of cabbage and pull off the leaves as they get soft. While that is going on, mix up to the rice together in a big bowl. Roll up the mixture the cabbage leaves making sure to cut out the big veins. Channel your inner Hungarian grandma, mine still needs some work. Put them in a tomato puree lined baking pan. Poor the rest of the tomato puree over the top and throw the red peppers over the top. With the cabbage that doesn’t make the cut because it is too small, cut small and throw into pan. We had way too much meat to cabbage and made meatballs with the leftovers. Bake at 350 degree for an hour, covered. Remove cover and lower temp to 200 for another hour. This last step could have been mitigated to get rid of some of the liquid because we left it covered a bit too long. These were super tender but my wife wondered why there was no sauerkraut, that’s the Northern European in me coming out.

Burger Friday

Tonight we really wanted an all the fixin’s burger night with tater tots. It was a 1/4 lb patty, with whatever anybody wanted. These are simple burgers. Take 1/4 lb ball and put it on the grill and smash it down. Cook until half way cook through and nicely browned. Once flipped add the cheese and wait for the cheese to melt and the burger to cook through. Our toppings this week were:

bacon
lettuce
tomato
egg
homemade hot sauce
BBQ sauce
mayo
ketchup

All is well as everyone is full and happy. There is a considerable discussion going on right now about whether we should be cooking thick medium rare burgers or smash burgers. This will never be settled and we rotate it.

Redo: Shakshuka

With our plan to redo some of the previous recipes, one of my favorites was the shakshuka. The only real change was that we had time to cook it longer which really added to the flavor and we added a can of tomato puree just because I wanted leftovers for lunch. We left out some of the spices just to have a more clean tomato flavor. Here’s what we did this time:

1 onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 green pepper, diced
2 big cans whole, peeled tomatoes
1 big can tomato puree
handful chopped parsley
handful chopped basil
salt and pepper
8 eggs

Saute the onions and garlic until translucent of medium-low. Add green pepper and saute for another few minutes. Add tomatoes and simmer for 1 hour, add the herbs and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Taste and adjust flavor as desired. Crack in the eggs and turn down to low and cover for about 8 minutes. It seemed to work out really well because my son even said “yeah, jammy eggs.”

Make Ahead: Beef Stroganoff

Our make ahead meal this week was some good ol’ comfort food for when we can’t cook but want some rib-stickin’ goodness. This week, bottom round roast was on sale to our grocery store recipe was some beef Stroganoff. Here’s what we did bought:

2ish lb bottom round roast, cut across grain then again to make strips
1/2 C. flour, salt and pepper
4 C. beef broth
1 onion, diced
1 lb mushrooms
1 box cream of mushroom soup
1/2 C. heavy cream
salt and tons of pepper

Put the flour, salt and pepper in a ziploc and add the beef. Mix around to get nicely coated. In a Dutch oven, add a glug of olive oil and heat to shimmering. Shaking off the excess flour, add the beef. Cook until brown on all sides making sure not to move around too much. Remove from pan. Add a little broth (1/2 C.) to get the good bits up. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook to soften for about 10 minutes. If things get sticky, add a bit more broth. Once things have softened, add the rest of the broth and the meat back in. Add in the mushroom soup and cook to concentrate about 1 hour. Meat should be nice and tender (use the meat as a gauge and not time). Once you think its right, add 1 C heavy cream and tons of pepper. Cook until it is mostly thick since we are serving it later in the week. Let cool and put in plastic container in fridge.

To serve: reheat and cook until thicken to the “right” consistency. Meanwhile, cook some wide egg noodles. Serve by pouring beef and sauce over noodles.

Black-eyed pea salad with haddock

Tonight the star of the dish is the salad. This is something we have been working on for at least 2 years. Many years ago in a restaurant in our neighborhood we had an appetizer that changed our cooking life. We love octopus especially grilled and they served a black-eyed pea salad with grilled octopus. We have been trying to perfect and improve/improvise on that salad ever since. There are really only a few ingredients:

1 can black-eyed peas, rinsed as best you can
2-3 carrots, finely diced
handful Italian parsley, finely chopped
2 green onions
1/2 lb English peas, shucked and steam in microwave for 1 minute
1 lemon, juiced
salt and pepper
shake garlic powder
olive oil

Just mix everything up and season with salt and pepper and adjust to your liking. Peas were something we had in the fridge and needed to get used but were a great addition. Serve with whatever protein you like, this is a great salad.

We served it with some haddock. Simple coat the haddock, skinless with flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Saute in olive oil and Done.

Sticky, honey ribs with rice and broccoli

We are now at a point where we sat down on Sunday afternoon while making make aheads and had a discussion, based on everything that we have made, what do we really want to eat again. The first intentional repeat are the sticky, honey ribs. These are awesome easy and everyone should be making them. The only twist we did was to add about an inch of ginger sliced into about 8 pieces. If you want to make it, have a look here.