First gumbo is a good one.

I’ve had gumbo on my list of recipes to try out for over a year now. There’s one main reason why I haven’t made it until now: Gumbo snobs.

Yep. You read that right. I’ve discovered that people who make gumbo are very… um… opinionated. There’s one way to do it and it’s their way.

Of course, the reality of it is that there are a bunch of different ways to make gumbo. It can have seafood, sausage, chicken, or just veggies. It can use a dark or light roux made from oil or butter. It should probably be served over rice, but I’m sure there are other options.

So let’s just get this out of the way: This is one way to make gumbo. I’m not sure if it’s the best, but it’s damn good.

If you have issues with it, please take it up with Bettyjean, the creator of the recipe. Who’s Bettyjean you might ask? I have no idea.

A friend (Hi Jess!) let me borrow a cookbook to browse through called Old Biloxi Recipes and this was the recipe that caught my eye. The book is basically a collection of really wonderful recipes that have been handed down generation to generation. Some of the recipes don’t even have amounts. It’ll just say stuff like “Carrots” or “Celery”, but you can figure it out.

Anyway, Bettyjean apparently let them publish her gumbo recipe and I’m glad she did. I made a few changes to it, but nothing major.

Bettyjean's Chicken Gumbo

Yield: Serves 8.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 4 hours

Ingredients:

Stock:
1 whole chicken or 3 pounds pieces with bones
2 onions, quartered
2 carrots, quartered
3 stalks celery, quartered
20-30 black peppercorns
1 head garlic, halved
A handful of parsley stalks

Roux:
1 cup peanut oil
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Finished Gumbo:
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
6-8 scallions, diced (reserve green parts for garnish)
1/2 cup white wine
Hot sauce
Long grain white rice
File powder
1 pound sausage (andouille is best), sliced and browned (opt.)

Directions:

1) Add stock ingredients to a large pot with enough water to cover everything, 8-10 cups. Bring to a simmer and simmer on low, covered, for at least 2 hours.

2) Remove chicken pieces from stock. Remove skin from chicken and shred the pieces into large chunks. Strain the stock.

3) Add stock and chicken back to large pot.

4) To make roux, stir oil and flour together over medium-low heat until it turns a nice dark color. The lightest it should be is the color of peanut butter, but you can go much dark. Stir regularly while it's cooking so it doesn't burn. It will take at least 20 minutes to get to the right shade.

5) Dice up onions, bell peppers, and celery for finishing ingredients. Split into two piles.

6) Add one pile of diced veggies to the roux when it's the shade you want. That will stop the cooking process for the roux. Stir together veggies and roux.

7) Saute the second pile of veggies in a skillet over medium-high heat with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook until softened, about 4-5 minutes.

8) Bring stock and chicken to a simmer and start adding roux mixture to it. Add it in large spoonfuls and make sure it dissolves completely before adding more. It'll take 5-10 minutes to add all the roux to the stock. Continue to simmer for 20 minutes uncovered to thicken the mixture. If you're using browned sausage (like andouille) add it now.

9) Add sauteed veggies to gumbo and white wine. Season with hot sauce and salt and pepper.

10) Serve gumbo over rice sprinkled with file powder. Garnish with scallion greens.

Adapted from the Old Biloxi Recipes book.

Starting with Stock

I got into a brief comment debate recently on an old post about how I’m a hypocrite. Basically, I talk a lot about how people should make their own stock and stuff and then I sometimes use store-bought stock.

This is true. At the end of the day, I’m a human being and try to have a life outside of the kitchen. Even when I do use store-bought stock though, I’m well aware that there’s a better way to do it. I don’t kid myself.

But when I do have time, I always try to make my stock. This is especially true for soups (although Macheesmo detectives will be able to find examples of soups on the site that I used store-bought stock to make).

This is really especially true though when the soup involves chicken because you have to cook the chicken anyway so it’s not a too much extra work to just make stock at the same time.

Taking stock.

For this recipe, you can either use a whole chicken or about 3-4 pounds of chicken pieces. Whatever you do, don’t make stock out of boneless skinless chicken breasts. There will be no flavor!

You need bones and skin to make your stock. So if you’re doing pieces (which I did for this version), use some thighs or legs and make sure to get breasts with the bone in.

Then just add everything to a large pot and bring it to a simmer.

This will smell great in an hour.

Let this simmer, covered, for at least two hours. The longer you go, the deeper your stock will be. Two hours is the absolute minimum.

When you’re happy with it, remove the chicken pieces and let them cool. Then strain the stock you’ll have a nice dark chicken stock that will smell delicious.

The real stuff.

Once your chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the pieces and shred the chicken into large pieces. Then add the chicken back to the pot with all the stock. You should have about 8 cups of stock here. If you have less, then add water or a good store-bought stock to make up the difference.

Chicken and stock.

The Roux

I make a lot of roux for recipes. Most importantly, it’s how I make queso dip. The roux for gumbo though is a much different beast although the idea is the same. Basically, it’s just fat and flour, cooked together and used to thicken something.

Instead of butter though, I used peanut oil. You also need much more of it and it’s good to get it much darker than when you’re making a light cream sauce.

Just two ingredients.

Add your oil and flour to a medium pot and get it cooking over medium heat. Stir it frequently while it cooks to make sure it doesn’t burn.

After 15-20 minutes, it’ll resemble the color of peanut butter. This is about as light as you can go for gumbo. You could stop here if you wanted and proceed with the recipe.

You could stop here.

Generally though, you’ll get a more flavorful gumbo if you continue to cook your roux for another 5-10 minutes so it gets really dark.

Like I said, this was my first gumbo so I wasn’t sure exactly how far you could go before burning the flour, but I got mine a few shades darker before deciding it was done. You might be able to go even darker, but this was the stage I stopped at and it made for a great gumbo.

You could maybe even go darker.

It’s really important to stop the cooking of the roux when it reaches the color you want. It could keep cooking and possibly burn.

The easiest way to stop the cooking is to stir in about half of the finishing veggies that you’ll need for the finished gumbo. Stir these in and it’ll stop the roux from cooking and actually cook the veggies a bit at the same time.

Stop that cooking!

Finishing the Gumbo

The gumbo is really easy to finish at this point.

Take your other half of the finishing veggies (onions, scallions, pepper, celery) and saute them on medium in a drizzle of oil until they are soft. You don’t want them browned, just soft. This will bring out some of the sweet flavors of the veggies.

Just 4-5 minutes of cooking should do the trick.

More veggies.

Bring your stock and chicken mixture back to a simmer and slowly start adding your roux to the stock in large spoonfuls. Make sure each spoonful gets dissolved before adding more.

Once all your roux is incorporated into the stock, let the gumbo simmer for 20 minutes or so to thicken up. Then add in the sauteed veggies, white wine, and sausage if you’re using it. Brown the sausage and slice it up before adding it to the gumbo.

Season the gumbo with hot sauce and salt and pepper. It’s really important to taste it and adjust the seasoning. I probably added 2-3 tablespoons of hot sauce to mine and a few big pinches of salt and pepper.

Don't forget to taste and season.

Serving Gumbo

While there is a lot of different ways to make gumbo, I’m not sure how many different ways you can serve the stuff. It’s really made for rice.

I just used normal long grain white rice and sprinkled on some gumbo file which gives the finished dish a very distinct gumbo flavor. I think this stuff is worth ordering if you want your gumbo to taste authentic, but you could definitely forego it and still have a pretty good meal.

Good stuff.

I garnished my gumbo with some of the greens from the scallions.

This was a really great winter meal.

Really good!

Besides being delicious, this also makes a metric ton of gumbo. Betsy and I ate it for multiple meals. It would also freeze really well if you wanted to keep it for longer than a week.

The next time I make it, I do think I’ll try adding some sausage to it, but I was pretty happy with this as my first gumbo attempt.

Ok. What did I miss?

People who know gumbo – leave a comment with tips/suggestions/etc.

Steak?

You guys are sneaky. I honestly didn’t think in a million years that cauliflower steak would win the poll. It not only won, it crushed all other options!

You guys really want to see a steak made of cauliflower!

I guess I’m happy to oblige.

For me, does this replace a wonderfully marbled and juicy medium-rare steak? Abso-freaking-lutely not.

But honestly it turned out a lot better than I was expecting. The cauliflower is really filling and has a good texture.

All the flavor comes from the tapenade on top. That’s the highlight of the meal for sure in my book.

Cauliflower Steaks

Yield: Serves 2-4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large head of cauliflower
2 tablespoons olive oil

Tapenade:
1/2 cup cauliflower florets, chopped
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup kalamata olives, diced
2-3 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 lemon, juice only
Salt and pepper

Tomato Sauce:
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
A pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Mini food processor

Directions:

1) Slice cauliflower head down the center and cut off all of the leaves. Slice off four 1/2 inch "steaks" of cauliflower. If your cauliflower head is very small you might only get 2-3 steaks out of it. Make sure they are a nice thickness.

2) Some florets will fall off as you cut the steaks, reserve them and chop them. Add enough florets to this until you have 1/2 cup of chopped florets.

3) Dice olives and sun-dried tomatoes and mix with chopped florets. Mix in parsley, lemon juice, and a dash of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and set aside for later.

4) To start steaks, add a good drizzle of olive oil to a large skillet and get it hot over high heat. Sear cauliflower steaks on both sides until they are nicely seared, about 3 minutes per side. You will have to work in two batches to sear all the steaks if you have 4.

5) Add steaks to a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Flip the steaks once halfway through roasting.

6) Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium pot. Add garlic and cook for a minute.

7) Add in diced tomatoes and continue to cook until simmering. Season with a pinch of sugar and salt and pepper.

8) Pulse tomato sauce in a food processor until smooth then return to pot and keep warm until needed.

9) Cauliflower steaks are done when they are tender in the thickest stem parts.

10) Serve steaks on the tomato sauce with a drizzle of good olive oil. Top with tapenade.

Adapted from Bon Appetit Jan. 2012.

Let’s Talk Cauliflower

I’m a big fan of cauliflower actually even though I don’t make it too much for Macheesmo posts. One of my favorite ways to prep cauliflower is to roast it with some balsamic and parmesan cheese. That’s good stuff.

Of course, for this we are keeping it really simple. The key to making a steak out of cauliflower is slicing it pretty thick. If you don’t slice it thick, it’ll just fall apart.

Bon Appetit says to slice it at least 1/2 inch thick, but I would maybe lean even more to 3/4-1 inch thick. You have to flip this thing a few times and you want it to stay in one nice piece.

Here’s my first steak!

Custom cut steaks.

You should be able to get 2-4 steaks per head of cauliflower depending on how big your hunk of cauliflower is.

One this is for sure though, as you cut the steaks, you’ll produce lots of what I call cauliflower schrapnel.

You’re going to want about 1/2 cup of this schrapnel for the tapenade later so if you don’t have that much just chop up a few florets to make more.

The florets.

The Tapenade

Like I said, I thought the best thing about this dish was the tapenade. Even Betsy said it was okay and she despises olives.

In fact, you could just make the tapenade and put it on crostini or something and that would be a very delicious appetizer.

Finally some flavor!

To make it, just dice up everything pretty finely and stir it together. If you can, make this first so it sits together for a few minutes.

The flavors need a chance to mingle.

Season the tapenade with salt and pepper but be careful with the salt. The olives and sun-dried tomatoes are already a bit salty so you won’t need much.

This is really tasty actually.

A Basic Tomato Sauce

The original recipe calls for real tomatoes, but I’m just never really all that impressed with December tomatoes so I just used a can of diced tomatoes to make my version.

This sauce is about as easy as sauce gets. Just dice up a few cloves of garlic and toss them in a pot with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook them on medium heat until they are soft (about 2 minutes), then add in the tomatoes and bring to a simmer.

I went ahead and blended mine up so it was smooth. You could leave it chunky though or use tomato sauce instead of diced tomatoes and you would be all set.

Season the sauce with a pinch of sugar and salt and pepper. If you wanted to get crazy you could add in some dried marjoram which goes really well with cauliflower. Totally optional though.

About as simple as sauce can get.

Cooking the Steaks

I must say, cooking these cauliflower steaks are a lot easier than real steaks. For one, they are cheap. So if you mess up at least you aren’t out $20. Second, while you can technically overcook them, it’s a lot more difficult. There’s a pretty wide range of acceptable finished temperatures for these guys. Not true (in my opinion) for real steaks.

To start cooking them, add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large pan and get it hot over high heat. Once it’s hot, add in the cauliflower steaks. I followed Bon Appetit’s advice and didn’t season my cauliflower at all. I just tossed them in the pan.

If I were to make these guys again (possible) then I think I might spice up the steaks a bit with some cumin or marjoram or just some salt and pepper. If you do add something, go light on it. The tapenade has a lot of flavor.

Sear the steaks for about 3 minutes per side on blazing high heat. This creates a nice sear on them.

Nice crust on that steak.

Then transfer the steaks to a 350 degree oven for about 18 minutes to finish cooking. Take them out and flip them once about half way through just to make sure they are cooking evenly.

If your pan isn’t oven-safe that you seared them in, you can transfer them to a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake them on that.

Serving is pretty straightforward: sauce, cauliflower, drizzle of olive oil, tapenade. Pile it high!

Not too bad actually.

I was very skeptical of how this would turn out. So was my loving wife.

We were both pleasantly surprised with it though! It’s much more filling than it looks and has some good flavors.

The steak on its own is kind of just a vessel for the sauce and tapenade.

The cauliflower has great texture though and if you’re feeding vegetarians, it’s a fun change from the portabella steaks that they are probably most used to.

Good stuff.

After a long holiday week of binge eating turkey and cookies, Betsy and I got off the plane and the first thing she said was, “Can we just eat salad for a week?”

I was happy to oblige for at least one dinner. My body was sort of screaming at me to pack in some veggies.

A lot of times I hear people say that they can’t make a meal out of salad and my response normally is, “You’re not making the right kind of salad!”

For me, a salad can definitely be a meal if it has a lot of different vegetables, textures, and flavors. One key element of the salad, for me, is always a delicious dressing.

While ranch dressing can be heavy, a little goes a long way and the subtle spice and herb flavors of this version can really round out a salad and make it a full meal.

Jalapeno Ranch Dressing

Yield: Makes about 3 cups.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup buttermilk (if you want a dip, use 1/4 cup)
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup fresh chives
1 tablespoon fresh dill
1 jalapeno, minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
Pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Dice garlic clove and add it to a bowl with a pinch of salt. Using a fork, mash the garlic and salt together to form a garlic paste.

2) Mince all the fresh herbs and add them the garlic paste. Mash them all together a bit and combine them well.

3) Mince jalapeno finely and add to the bowl. If you want the dressing to be really spicy, leave in seeds and pith of the pepper.

4) Add mayonnaise and greek yogurt to the bowl and stir well. Add in lime juice as well.

5) Thin the dressing out with buttermilk until it's the desired consistency. For a dip I would use 1/4 cup, for a dressing, use 1/2 cup.

6) Stir or shake dressing together well and use immediately or store for a week or two in the fridge.

Dressing Ingredients

Ranch dressing normally has sour cream in it, but I subbed Greek yogurt to make it somewhat healthier. Of course, it still has mayonnaise and buttermilk.

You can’t win them all.

The good news is that because of all the delicious herbs and stuff, just a few tablespoons of this dressing will add a lot of flavor to any salad. You don’t need to drown your salad to add a lot of flavor to it.

Lots of good fresh herbs.

Mincing and Mashing

When I’m making a dressing or sauce with garlic in it, I like to mince my clove of garlic and then add it to a bowl with a pinch of kosher salt. Then I grab a fork and just kind of mash the garlic and salt together.

This releases a lot of the juices in the garlic and makes a salty garlic paste. It’s why you definitely only need one clove of garlic for this recipe. Two would be over-powering.

One clove is all ya need.

Besides the garlic, take the time to really mince up the ingredients finely. It’s a dressing after all and you don’t want any huge pieces of any one thing.

For the jalapeno, I decided to take out the seeds and just mince the pepper. I think if I made this again, I would actually leave the seeds and pith of the pepper in to make it even a bit more spicy.

It’s just personal preference though. If you want it spicier, leave in the seeds and pith. If you want it more mild, take them out!

You could leave the seeds in if you wanted it real spicy.

All the herbs should be diced pretty finely. While you could leave out the dill in this recipe, I think the parsley and chives are pretty mandatory.

Gotta have chives in ranch.

Once all your herbs are chopped, add them to the bowl with the garlic paste. Squeeze in some fresh lime juice and mash everything together a bit to combine the flavors.

Good green stuff.

A Dip or a Dressing?

After your herbs are chopped and mixed, stir in the mayo and greek yogurt.

Then comes the decision part. Do you want a dip or a dressing? If you want a dip, add in just a tiny bit of buttermilk to give it some tang but leave it thick. If you’re shooting for a dressing, thin it out more with the buttermilk.

I used about 1/2 cup of buttermilk for my dressing version. At the end of the day though, you could thin it out more or less. Again, it’s personal preference on this.

Buttermilk is very important.

The Salad

When I’m making a salad as a meal, I like to pile on lots of interesting flavors and textures. Sometimes this can mean a protein like grilled chicken, but it doesn’t have to. In this case, I didn’t add any meat.

I did add some homemade croutons though that I tossed with some olive oil and garlic.

I also roasted some small beets which are the last thing I harvested from my summer garden! These were really sweet and delicious in the salad.

Yum.

Besides those things, my salad was basically a large chunk of the produce section.

Green lettuce, shredded carrots, cucumbers, red peppers, scallions, radishes, avocado, cheddar cheese…

A salad can be a meal.

As you can see, I just added a few drizzles of dressing and it was more than enough to flavor the salad.

This was a delicious meal and left me FULL.

The dressing will obviously not last as long as store-bought ranch dressing because it doesn’t have any preservatives or anything in it. The tradeoff is that it has a lot more flavor, so you need to use less of it.

I think it will easily last 2 weeks in the fridge though.

Give this dressing a shot if you’re in a salad rut!

My childhood in a bowl.

There has been some sort of mild plague going around our town for the last few weeks and Betsy’s office has been hit pretty hard with it. It was only a matter of time before one of us woke up sniffling and aching.

I was lucky enough to avoid the sickness this time around but it sure did smack Bets right upside the head.

So I did what I do best when dealing with a sickness: Make soup.

This time around I happened to find these tiny little star-shaped pastas in the grocery store that sent me flying back to my childhood when my mom would always make me chicken and stars soup when I was sick.

So this is my homemade take on chicken and stars soup. It’s soothing and healing and will get you back on your feet again for sure.

Chicken and Stars Soup

Yield: Serves 8-10.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Stock:
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
1 large onion, quartered
2 carrots, quartered
2 celery ribs, quartered
1 head garlic, halved
2 Tablespoons olive oil
6-8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Handful of fresh parsley
20ish black peppercorns
10-12 cups water

Finished Soup:
Stock from above, strained
Shredded chicken from above, remove fat
1/2 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 glove garlic, diced
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme
6-8 ounces star pasta
Salt and pepper
Crackers and/or crusty bread

Helpful Equipment:
Dutch Oven
Strainer

Directions:

1) Chop chicken into pieces and add the carcass pieces and wings to a large sturdy pot over high heat with a drizzle of oil. Let the chicken pieces brown well over high heat for about 8 minutes. Turn the chicken every few minutes to make it browns evenly.

2) Add your other stock ingredients (including other chicken parts) except the water to the heavy pot and let them all sautee for a few minutes. Try to scrape up any stuck-on bits.

3) Add the water to your pot and make sure you have enough water to barely cover the ingredients. Bring to a simmer and turn the heat down to medium. Simmer the stock on medium, partially covered, for about 60-75 minutes.

4) Remove all the chicken pieces from the stock and let them cool briefly.

5) Strain the warm stock into a large bowl. If there's a lot of fat on the surface of the stock, try to spoon off some of it. It's okay though to have a small layer of fat on the stock for this recipe.

6) Once chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin from chicken and shred it into bite-sized pieces.

7) In your same large pot, add a new drizzle of olive oil over medium-high heat. Then add all your diced veggies. Sautee for a few minutes until they start to soften. Add fresh thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper.

8) Add stock back to pot and bring to a simmer.

9) Once soup is simmering, stir in stars pasta and cook until al dente, about 9-10 minutes.

10) Finally stir in shredded chicken and season with salt and pepper.

11) Serve soup with crackers or crusty bread.

Making The Stock

I do occasionally take shortcuts and use store-bought stock for some dishes, but there’s absolutely no question that the best way to make a good soup is to make a good stock. It does add at least 90 minutes onto your preparation time (unless you have some frozen), but there’s just no debating that it takes homemade soup to another level.

I like to use a whole chicken when I make chicken soup so there’s a mix of white and dark meat. I like to chop up the chicken before cooking the stock which just makes it a bit easier to work with and gives you an opportunity to brown some of the meat.

Use any pieces you want.

If you’re intimidated by cutting up your own chicken, this video is one of the best I’ve seen at showing the process. It’s really not that hard and after you do two or three, you’ll get really fast at it.

Besides chicken and water, there’s a pretty standard list of vegetables that you’ll need to make a good stock. I wrote down a recipe, but it should be a guide. The good news about making stock is it’s a pretty flexible thing. Feel free to use more or less of the veggies depending on what you have and also don’t worry about chopping them up.

I just kind of quarter all of my vegetables.

Nothing fancy here.

To make the stock (and soup), I like to use a big heavy dutch oven. Add a drizzle of oil to the pan over high heat and then add just your chicken carcass and wings to the pot. That’s probably all that will be able to fit in a nice layer in the pan. If you can fit more chicken pieces, feel free to add them.

Let those chicken pieces cook for about 4-5 minutes per side until they are nice and browned. Some bits might get stuck to the pan and that’s just fine. The browned bits will give the stock a really deep flavor.

After your chicken has browned for a few minutes, you can add all your other veggies, herbs, and seasonings.

The start of something great.

Let these guys cook for a few minutes and try to scrape up any bits stuck to the pan.

Then add any other chicken pieces to the pot and cover the whole thing with water. You want to cover everything by about an inch or so. This will probably work out to 10-12 cups of water.

Bring this all to a simmer and let it simmer and turn your heat down to medium. Let the stock simmer, partially covered, for about 75 minutes. Check on it every 20-30 minutes and if there’s a lot of foam on the surface, just scoop it off with a spoon.

The Soup Pieces

One reason why it really makes sense to make your own stock if you’re making homemade chicken soup is because you have to cook the chicken anyway. Making the stock accomplishes that for you!

Once your stock is cooked, just pull out your chicken pieces, let them cool for 5-10 minutes, and then shred them up. Try to remove as much fat and stuff as possible and just shred the chicken into bite-sized bits.

Get it?

For that delicious stock that’s been simmering, I recommend straining it with a strainer to remove any tiny bits of vegetable or whatever.

If there’s a lot of oil on your stock, try to spoon off some of it. A little bit definitely won’t hurt the soup at all.

This was my strained and finished stock that I used for my soup.

Liquid gold.

For the actual soup, take your time dicing up some veggies so they are roughly the same size. You don’t need a ton of vegetables to make a good soup at this point.

Half an onion, a few ribs of celery, a carrot or two, and a clove of garlic should do the trick.

Chopped nicely...

And, of course, you’ll need some stars. You could obviously use noodles or whatever, but I just think these are fun.

Love stars!

Making the Soup

I didn’t even bother washing out my pot from making the stock. I just added a new drizzle of olive oil, set the pot over medium-high heat, and added all my veggies to it.

Just a few minutes...

Cook the veggies for a few minutes until they start to soften and then add the thyme and all the stock. Bring that all to a simmer and then add your stars.

A Note on Over-starring. I actually added the full 16 ounces of stars to my soup because they looked so tiny! Like any pasta though, they swell! I think my version ended up a bit star-heavy! Six to eight ounces of the star pasta should be enough.

The stars will need to cook for about 9-10 minutes and then you can stir in your shredded chicken and season the soup with salt and pepper.

Done deal. Really not too much work.

Serving the soup

I really like soup like this with crackers, but I know that super-crusty bread is also a hit. Any way you scoop it, this is just a good bowl of soup.

So good.

Betsy ate this for a few meals (I did too just to ward off the germs) and she was feeling much better after about 24 hours!

I take full credit for her recovery.

Awesome lunch.

If you’ve been a long time Macheesmo reader you’ll know that Betsy and I are on a crazy hunt to find original and fun lunches to eat during the week. There’s always a few qualifications for these lunches.

1) You need to be able to make them in bulk.

2) They need to be fairly economical and also keep really well for at least five days.

3) They need to be somewhat healthy.

This hunt has led us to some awesome lunches like this pesto quinoa salad. In general though, it keeps us both out of the fast food lines and generally saves us a few bucks a week also.

I do think I’m starting to get fairly good at the weekday lunch because Betsy’s co-workers have actually offered to pay me to bring them lunch during the week. I haven’t actually taken them up on it, but I happily direct them to this here website where they can find almost every lunch I’ve made for us.

The latest iteration of this hunt took the form of a classic Middle Eastern meal: Falafel and Tabbouleh.

A Middle Eastern Lunch

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Tabbouleh:
1 cup quick cooking bulgar
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/3 cup fresh mint, chopped
3 scallions, minced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes (drained)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt

Falafel:
2 16 ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 large egg
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup fresh parsley, minced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, minced
1/2 white onion, diced
2 Teaspoons baking soda
1 Teaspoon cumin seeds
1 Teaspoon paprika
1/4 Cup Sesame seeds
Pinch of salt and pepper

Mini Pitas
1 quart oil for frying
Greek Yogurt

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor
Deep Fry Thermometer

Directions:

For Tabbouleh:
1) Cook bulgar according to package. This will most likely mean letting it steep in hot water for about 20 minutes.
2) Chop other ingredients.
3) Once bulgar is soaked, mix with veggies and add in olive oil and lemon juice.
4) Season with salt and store for up to a week.

For Falafels:
1) Pulse onion, garlic, and sesame seeds in food processor.
2) Add chickpeas and pulse until combined.
3) Remove from processor and stir in breadcrumbs, egg, herbs and spices.
4) Heat frying station up to 350 degrees.
5) Make about Tablespoon-sized balls from the chickpea mixture.
6) Fry balls in oil for about 3-4 minutes until they are a deep golden brown.
7) Let drain and serve with pita and greek yogurt.

Getting Bulgar

Tabbouleh, if you aren’t familiar with it, is an awesome side dish that just a mixture of bulgar wheat and lots of fresh vegetables and herbs.

You can find bulgar in most supermarkets and grocery stores these days. Look out for the quick cooking variety. It works great.

Love this stuff.

Besides the bulgar, you just need a lot of veggies. I like crunchy stuff like scallions and cucumbers in mine along with lots of fresh herbs like parsley and mint. I also drained a small can of diced tomatoes and added those to the mix just for good measure!

Lots of good flavors here.

Preparing the bulgar is really straightforward. You should read the instructions that come with your bulgar but basically it will involve soaking the bulgar in hot water for about 20 minutes.

Then it will turn nice and fluffy!

After a soak.

Mix all this stuff together and season it with some lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and you’ll be all set.

As with most stuff like this, tabbouleh gets even better if you let it sit in the fridge for a day or two. All the flavors start to mingle and it’s really very delicious, not to mention healthy.

It gets better on day two.

The Falafels

It’s pretty hard to make a meal out of just tabbouleh so I decided to make a big batch of falafels that would go well with it.

Honestly, this was my first time ever making falafels and I was pretty impressed at how easy they were to make.

I started out by pulsing my onions, garlic, and spices in my food processor until they were minced finely. Just a few pulses will do the trick.

A food processor is your friend.

Then add your drained chickpeas to the food processor and pulse them a few more times. You should end up with a rough paste. Remove that from your food processor and add in all your other ingredients!

My mixture was already smelling really good so I knew I was onto something here!

It's like a batter-dough thing.

Frying the Falafels

Once you have your falafel batter ready, just set up your fry station as you normally would. As always, I highly recommend using a deep-fry thermometer to make sure you don’t overheat your oil.

Once your oil is at 350 degrees, just start adding your falafel batter in large tablespoon sized balls. They should only take 3-4 minutes to fry up and turn really nice and brown.

Nice color on these guys.

These were really flavorful. Perfectly crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside.

Chomp!

I was worried about the falafels keeping okay. After all, fried food tends to be best right out of the fryer.

It’s true that the falafels were best right away, but they kept fine also. You could microwave them or I thought they were fine cold.

A few falafel balls plus a cup or so of tabbouleh and some greek yogurt and pita made for a great lunch.

All packed up!

If you can find a way to cycle in some semi-healthy foods for lunch during the week, I think you’ll be shocked at how much more energy you have in the afternoon. If I eat something like this, I find I have way more juice than if I chow down on a huge cheeseburger or something.

While it is a bit of work to make these two things, if you can find time to do it on a lazy sunday, you’ll be all set for lunches for the entire week!

I guess like a farm house would make?

Let me preface what I’m about to write with the fact that I’m an enormous Cook’s Illustrated fan. I love their magazine and cookbooks and all their recipes are almost always surefire.

That said, when “Farmhouse Veggie Soup” won the poll last week, I was expecting to read a recipe involving slow-simmering stocks and farm-raised veggies.

After all, I have a hard time calling a recipe “Farmhouse” unless it’s actually cooked in a farmhouse. Or at a minimum it should use all fresh ingredients.

When I think of a farmhouse veggie soup, I imagine an old grandmother slowly stirring a pot of stock that’s been simmering for hours. She carefully stirs in hand-picked veggies from outside her back door while her lazy dogs lounge around the kitchen.

What doesn’t come to mind is a test cook in a cooking laboratory mixing soy sauce and powdered porcini mushrooms to get the same deep flavors that the grandmother gets.

It’s not to say that the later version isn’t completely delicious (it is), but calling it “Farmhouse” makes me feel icky.

So I’m renaming it Cheater’s Veggie Soup. Because that’s really what it is.

Cheater's Vegetable Soup

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon dried porcini mushroom powder
8 Sprigs fresh parsley + 3 Tablespoons chopped
4 Sprigs fresh thyme
1 Bay leaf
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Large leeks, 1/2 inch slices
2 Carrots, peeled and diced
2 Ribs celery, diced
1/2 Cup white wine
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
6 Cups water
4 Cups vegetable stock
1/2 Cup pearl barley
2 Cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 turnip, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 green cabbage, diced
1 Cup frozen peas
1 Teaspoon lemon juice

Serve with:
Crusty Bread
Lemon Thyme butter (1 stick butter mashed with 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, zest from 1/2 lemon, and a pinch of salt)

Helpful Equipment:
Dutch Oven

Spice Grinder

Directions:

1) In a spice grinder, grind a handful of dried mushrooms for 25-30 seconds until they are powdered. Measure out a Tablespoon of the powder.

2) Use kitchen twine to tie together parsley and thyme sprigs with bay leaf.

3) Melt butter in a large, sturdy pot (dutch oven works well) over medium heat. Add leeks, carrots, celery, white wine and soy sauce, plus a big pinch of salt. Cook until liquid is evaporated and veggies are soft, about 10 minutes.

4) Add water, broth, barley, mushroom powder, herb bundle, and garlic. Increase heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes, partially covered.

5) Add potatoes, turnips, and cabbage. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

6) Remove soup from heat and stir in peas and chopped parsley. Remove herb bundle. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with crusty bread and lemon-thyme butter.

Adapted from a Cook's Illustrated Recipe

Some Whacky Ingredients

This recipe is kind of wild, but with good reason. Most cooks know that the way to make the best homemade soup is to start with a really good homemade stock. Without this, you’re already playing catch-up.

But this recipe ingeniously compensates for the lack of a homemade stock with a few ingredients that have a delicious, savory flavor: dried mushrooms and soy sauce. Just a small amount of both of these gives the soup a really deep flavor so you can actually use store-bought stock and still end up with a fantastic soup.

The first ingredient, porcini mushroom powder, is a bit weird. Luckily, it’s actually really easy to make. Just stick a few dried mushrooms in your spice grinder and pulse them for about 30 seconds. BAM. Mushroom powder.

Mushroom powder is strong!

Soy sauce and white wine also give the soup some great flavors.

Normally, when you make a good stock, you let some herbs simmer in the stock, but for this soup, we’ll just throw the herb bundle straight into the soup when we add the store-bought stock.

Herb bundles are smart.

Starting the Soup

Most of the actual vegetables in this soup are pretty straightforward. One thing I was really happy to see was the substitution of leeks for onions. Onions can quickly overpower a soup so the leeks are a great change. They have that same flavor profile, but aren’t quite as strong.

The key part to remember about chopping leeks is to make sure you cut them in half horizontally and run them under water to clean the dirt out between the layers of leeks. Then you can just dice them up.

Don't be intimidated!

Also dice up some celery and carrots and you’re ready to get started on the soup.

Starting the soup...

Using a heavy pot, like a dutch oven, melt some butter over medium-high heat and then toss in your leeks, carrots, and celery. Also add in the white wine, soy sauce, and a big pinch of salt.

Cook this until the liquids all evaporate and the veggies are starting to soften.

Then go ahead and stir in the water, mushroom powder, herb bundle, stock, garlic, and barley.

Stock and water!

The barley is especially important. As it plumps up, it really thickens the soup nicely.

Action shot!

Bring this to a simmer and let it simmer for about 20-25 minutes so the barley can start to cook.

The Starchy Stuff

While that’s simmering away, you can prepare the starchy stuff in the soup: potatoes, turnips, and cabbage. Ok. Cabbage isn’t exactly a starch, but you add it with the starchy stuff so it gets lumped in for purposes of this soup.

The starch business.

Once your soup has simmered for 20 minutes or so, then you can stir in those veggies.

Love these flavors.

Continue to simmer the soup until the veggies are all tender and the barley is cooked. This will probably be another 20 minutes or so.

Finishing the Soup

To finish off this soup, once all the veggies are soft, kill the heat and stir in some frozen peas and fresh parsley. Now would also be a good time to taste the soup for seasoning. It might need another pinch of salt and pepper.

Some green stuff.

Serve this up immediately with some really crusty bread.

Crusty bread is key.

It’s a perfect soup for the fall and you can actually make it on a week day thanks to some of the shortcuts in the recipe.

I’m not sure that I would exactly call it “Farmhouse”, but I would call it a keeper!

I heart you.

As I cook more and more, I’ve found myself venturing into cuts of meat that are less popular – like offal.

There’s a few reasons for this really:

1) It’s boring to cook the same cut over and over again. It can be a fun challenge to figure out a new cut of beef.

2) It way more economical and efficient (and I believe important) to know how to eat the whole animal.

3) Assuming you cook it correctly, it can be really delicious.

I’m lucky enough to be married to someone who is pretty adventurous and will try almost anything once especially after I made her lengua tacos that she still talks about today.

Cooking beef heart was a new one for me though and there’s no doubt about it. It takes a little HEART to cook a big one.

Grilled Beef Heart

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 whole beef heart (about 2 pounds)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Polenta or other starch

Gremolata: (From my short rib ragu recipe)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lemon zest and 1/2 of the juice
1/4 Cup fresh parsley, minced
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive oil

Directions:

1) Take your whole heart and, with a sharp knife, go over both sides of it removing any sinewy parts including skin and tendons. You should be left with a uniform piece of meat that resembles a very lean steak.

2) Cut the heart steak into 1/2 inch slices. Drizzle on some olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.

3) Grill heart strips on high heat for about 3 minutes per side for medium rare. Once the steaks come off the grill, let them rest for a few minutes before serving. Cover them with foil to keep them warm.

4) Mix gremolata ingredients together ahead of time and let sit at room temperature for a few minutes (30 would be good).

5) Serve a few heart strips over a starch (like polenta). Top with gremolata.

Preparing the Heart

When it comes to finding a whole beef heart, you might have to do some searching. It probably won’t be in your local Kroger. Ask around at butchers and check out farmer’s markets (where I got mine).

The good news is that if you find one, it’ll probably be dirt cheap. I was able to snag a grass-fed free-range heart for about $2/pound.

When I brought it home, Betsy was a bit squeamish about it I think. Mainly just because it looks like, well, a heart.

Yep. That's a heart.

The thing to remember about a heart is that it’s basically one big muscle with lots of compartments and valves made of tough tendons.

Grab a sharp knife and spend some time going over both sides of the heart, slicing off anything that looks chewy.

You should be left with a steak that is basically the leanest cut of meat you’ll ever see from a cow.

All cleaned up.

Cut this into 1/2 inch strips and drizzle on some olive oil. Then season them liberally with salt and pepper.

Season liberally...

Cooking the Heart

Unlike some cuts of offal which take a long time to prepare, heart is about as easy as it gets. You want to cook it like a steak basically: Hot and Fast.

So fire up that grill (or cast iron skillet) and crank the heat up to high. The heart steaks will take only about 3 minutes per side to be a nice medium rare.

Really easy to grill.

Be sure to let your heart rest for a few minutes when it comes off the grill before serving it. Just be sure to cover them with foil to keep them warm.

The Gremolata

I decided to serve my heart with a popular Italian topping called gremolata. It’s basically an acidic, herby, salty creation that goes really well with beef.

See where I'm going here?

Just mix everything together and let it marinate for a few minutes at room temperature. You’ll be left with this sauce that goes great on pretty much any cut of beef.

Put this on anything really.

Serving Options

I recommend serving these guys with some sort of starch. I chose polenta just to keep with the Italian theme but you could use egg noodles or a ton of other starches.

Assuming you do use polenta, just cook it according to the package and, if you want, you could mix in some grated cheese.

A side of veggies doesn’t hurt for this dish also because the heart and starch combo can be a bit heavy.

Price at a restaurant?

I cut into one of my heart strips just so you could see the finished product.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to not overcook these guys.

Perfect.

At the end of the day, I thought this was a really tasty cut of meat. Betsy didn’t love it, but she readily admitted that that was mainly because she couldn’t get over the fact that she was eating heart.

I found the flavor to be a lot more mild than some other offal cuts if you can get past the whole heart thing…

What do you think? Anybody else tried beef heart before?

CHOMP!

The idea of a healthy burger might be a bit strange to some people, but that’s what Jamie Oliver tried to do in his recent season of Food Revolution: LA.

He worked with a local LA fast food joint to replace some of their unhealthy (but delicious looking) burgers on the menu with burgers that will hopefully be equally delicious but also healthier.

There were four burgers that he made on the show, but you guys voted for the Green Goddess burger so I did my best to recreate it!

It turned out really awesome although I’m not sure I mastered the health parts.

Green Goddess Burgers

Yield: 9 Burgers

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

3 pounds ground beef. I recommend getting a chuck roast and grinding it yourself!
Buns

Green Goddess Sauce:
2 Cups Greek yogurt
1/2 lemon, juice only
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 Cup fresh parsley, minced
Pinch of salt and pepper

Basic Guacamole:
4 avocados
1-2 shallots, minced
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
Handful fresh cilantro, minced
2 limes, juice only
Pinch of salt

Other burger toppings:
Grilled onions
Sprouts
Roasted red peppers

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor or Meat Grinder

Directions:

1) For green goddess sauce, mix ingredients in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Can be made in advance.

2) For guacamole, dice ingredients finely and mix.

3) For burgers, separate meat and fat on chuck roast. Grind or process fat until it's finely ground into a paste.

4) Remove fat and grind/process meat. Don't overprocess meat.

5) Stir meat and fat together or send them through the grinder together.

6) Make 9 1/3 pound burgers. Season well with salt and pepper.

7) Grill burgers over high heat for 4-5 minutes per side.

Making the Burgers

Now you could definitely just use normal hamburger meat for these guys, but in the Food Revolution spirit, I thought it would be good to grind my own meat.

Also, I think you can get a lot better flavor by grinding your own. Remember that most ground beef you buy at the store is just scraps.

So you can do a lot better for not a lot of money by getting a nice chuck roast and doing it yourself.

There are burgers in there...

To do this right, step one is cutting out most of the fat from the roast. This takes some patience, but you should be able to cut off the large pieces of meat and then slice off the layers of fat.

It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Once you have most of your fat cut off, send it through your grinder or pulse it in a food processor until it’s basically a paste.

The reason you want to do the fat separately is because you want the fat to have a finer texture than the meat.

The fat stuff.

Then take out the fat and grind the meat. If you’re using a food processor, be careful not to over-process the meat or you’ll have a paste instead of ground beef.

Then you can mix the fat and meat together! If you’re a perfectionist, you could weigh the fat and meat and make sure that you are getting about 20% fat which is what I like to use in my burgers.

I think I over-shot the fat content a bit in this round (so much for healthy). I probably had closer to 30% fat. Oh well!

Maybe a bit too much fat!

Three pounds of chuck roast should make about nine burgers. I like to make mine about 1/3 of a pound. Just shape them lightly with your hands and try not to press down on the burgers too much.

Season them all really well with salt and pepper.

Looking good!

The Green Goddess Sauce

In the show, Jamie slathers his burger with some sort of yogurt-based sauce. It’s kind of hard to see what’s going on there, but I had to guess, so I went with these things:

Making a green goddess.

Mixed all together they make a great creamy sauce that takes the place of cheese on the burger. You can make this in advance if you want. It’s better on day two actually.

Tasty stuff.

Guacamole

The second topping for the burger is just my standard guacamole recipe. Guacamole on a burger is one of those fantastic combinations that once you have once, you’ll want it every time.

These days, I don’t really make a small amount of guacamole. Whatever doesn’t go on the burgers can go on chips!

Artsy avocado shot....

When making guacamole, just be sure to dice all your ingredients well. It’s never good to get a huge bite of jalapeno or something.

Other than that though, just mix everything together! The lime juice is really important as the acid will keep the guacamole nice and green.

You can never have too much.

Cooking the Burgers

Obviously, the best thing to do is grill the burgers. If you don’t have a grill though, you could definitely do these in a pan also.

Grill them over high heat for 4-5 minutes per side for a medium burger and be ready for some serious flare-ups, especially if you have 30% fat like mine were…

One of my favorite things.

Once the burgers are done, slather one side of the bun with the green goddess dressing and the other side with guacamole.

This one I kept pretty standard, but feel free to spruce it up with sprouts, grilled onions, or red peppers also.

Really good.

I’m not entirely sure that my version ended up being much healthier than a normal burger, but I did use a whole wheat bun. So I get some points, people!

In all seriousness though, it’s a delicious burger and very different than anything you’ll find at a fast food place which is the point!

Serious balls of meat.

I think when most people picture spaghetti and meatballs they envision a gigantic pot of red sauce with drowning meatballs dunked in it.

Because that’s what most people do when they make meatballs. It’s pretty easy to make decent meatballs and sauce if you do it this way, BUT… we can do better.

Especially in the summer, I’m just not in the mood for a thick sauce piled on my pasta. And that’s when this recipe saves the day. The meatballs, made of buffalo because of last week’s poll, are light and super-flavorful. Serving them over buttered egg noodles instead of sauced spaghetti makes this a great hearty summer dinner.

Buffalo Meatballs

Yield: 12 meatballs, serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound ground buffalo
4 ounces (about 1/2 Cup) frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 Cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 large egg
1/4 Cup bread crumbs (plus more for coating meatballs)
1 Tablespoon fresh basil
1 Tablespoon fresh parsley
1 Teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
Pinch of salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Mini muffin tin (yea you read that right)

Directions:

1) Thaw spinach and press out as much moisture as possible with a few paper towels.

2) Chop spinach and fresh herbs very finely.

3) Mix ground buffalo and other ingredients in a large bowl. This can be done in advance.

4) Form meatballs with 1.5-2 ounces of meat. Keep the mixture nice and light.

5) Once the meatball is formed, toss it around in bread crumbs until completely covered.

6) Set meatballs in a mini muffin tin (or on a sheet pan if you don't have one)

7) Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Turn once halfway through.

8) Serve meatballs over buttered noodles with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Very adapted from an Alton Brown recipe.

Making the Meatballs

The problem with some meatballs is that they tend to either A) fall apart or B) be completely dry. These guys have neither problem. They have plenty of moisture and texture and stay together really nicely.

You could use dried herbs if you wanted (use 1 1/2 Teaspoons instead of a full tablespoon), but I think fresh works great.

Basic stuff.

While I think it’s good to use fresh herbs, I don’t think it’s important at all to use fresh spinach. I just used the frozen stuff, thawed it out and pressed out as much liquid as possible with a few paper towels.

Then just chop it up!

Squeeze it out good.

Add all your meatball ingredients to a large bowl and start stirring!

Ready for a good mixin'

The key when making meatballs is to keep the mixture nice and light. You don’t want to be pressing down really hard on the meat. Just stir it until the ingredients are mostly combined and think light thoughts!

You could make this up to 24 hours in advance if you wanted. Not that it takes long to make.

Try to keep it nice and light.

Forming the balls

I like to weigh my meatballs to make sure they are all pretty much the same size. This isn’t completely necessary though. You are basically looking for a 1.5-2 ounce meatball. It should be the size of a small golf ball basically.

Just roll the meat gently between your hands until it forms a ball. Again, keep it nice and light.

A scant two ounces is good.

Then add the ball to a bowl full of bread crumbs and roll it around a bit until it’s completely covered.

Repeat until all the balls are formed!

Breadcrumb bath.

Cooking the meatballs

There are a ton of ways to cook meatballs. Actually, pretty much any way you can cook stuff, you can cook meatballs. You could fry them, cook them on the stove, roast them… the options are pretty endless.

Alton came up with a great technique on his meatballs episode that I just had to try.

You cook the meatballs in a mini muffin pan!

Thanks Alton!

The benefits of doing this are two fold. First, since the meatballs are gently held above the bottom of the pan, the fat can drain away. Second, the even heating ensures that they get nice and browed all around while still keeping their shape.

I baked mine for 25 minutes at 400 degrees and turned the meatballs once halfway through. These are ready to go!

After 25 minutes...

Serving Options

Options are pretty limitless when it comes to serving. You could stick them on toothpicks, toss them in some red sauce at this point, or go the way I chose.

Cook up some egg noodles, drain them, and then toss in a few tablespoons of butter. Once the noodles are well buttered, serve the meatballs on top with some fresh Parmesan cheese and parsley.

This really lets the meatball flavor shine.

Butter noodles are the way to go!

These were really fun to make and took me only about 35 minutes start to finish. That’s not too bad for a really nice dinner.

Leftovers are great on a hoagie with provolone cheese!

Meatballs in a mini muffin tin. Go figure.

Yum.

José Andrés, if you’re reading (yea right), you might want to stop.

Allow me to explain.

When I used to live in DC, there was this big event once a year or so when Chef Andrés would set up a huge paella wok thing outside in downtown DC and cook paella for like a million people.

I never was able to go to it. Sad face.

Recently, I was blessed with a fair amount of really good saffron from a few worldwide travelers and so I figured What the Hay. I can make paella.

And I can. And it was good.

But I started with chef Andrés’s recipe and ended up with something else altogether. So, if you happen to be him, sorry for mutilating your recipe, dude.

Cast Iron Paella

Yield: Serves 5-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms
3 Cups water
6-8 Tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds chicken, cubed (you could sub 1 pound of shrimp for one pound of chicken)
1 pound mixed mushrooms, I used a mix of shiitake and oyster
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Cups short grain white rice (paella rice)
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 Teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 Teaspoon saffron threads, soaked in a bit of warm water
2 Cups chicken broth
Chopped parsley (garnish)

Allioli recipe (Served with paella)
4 garlic cloves, halved and center germ removed
1/2 Teaspoon fine salt
2 large egg yolks
3 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar
1 Cup light olive oil
Fresh black pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Cast Iron Skillet!

Directions:

1) For allioli, smash garlic cloves and add them to a medium bowl. Use a fork to mash them up even more. Whisk in egg yolks, vinegar, water, and salt.

2) Set bowl over a water bath with simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Whisk continuously until temp is 140 degrees. It should take about 3 minutes and be hot to the touch, but not boiling. Continue to whisk, keeping it at that temperature for 3 more minutes.

3) Let yolk mixture cool and then whisk in oil in a steady, slow steam. Whisk constantly and it should thicken up. Season with black pepper. This can be made in advance and stored in the fridge.

4) For Paella, bring 3 cups of water to a boil and add to a bowl with dried mushrooms. Let reconstitute for about an hour. Then strain broth and squeeze any liquid you can out of mushrooms.

5) Dice fresh mushrooms, onion, garlic, and chicken.

6) Add a few tablespoons of oil to a cast iron skillet over high heat. Sear chicken in two batches for about 5 minutes per batch. Chicken doesn't need to be cooked through, just seared.

7) Remove to a bowl. Add a bit more oil and sear mushrooms. After a few minutes add onions and garlic and continue to cook. Season with salt and pepper and cook for another minute or two until slightly soft, but not completely cooked.

8) Add mushrooms and onions to chicken and set aside.

9) Add a bit more oil to pan along with rice. Stir over medium-high heat for about a minute to coat rice.

10) Add mushroom broth, spices, tomatoes, saffron (and broth), chicken, onions, mushrooms, and 1/2-1 Cup of chicken stock. The liquid should just cover all the ingredients.

11) Bring to a simmer on the stove and then add to a 400 degree oven. Cook for 30-40 minutes, checking frequently. If it is dry at any point and the rice still isn't cooked, add a bit more stock.

12) It's done with the edges are a bit crusty and the rice is cooked al dente.

13) Serve with chopped parsley and allioli.

Crazily adapted from this recipe.

Variations aplenty!

Like I said, I made a few changes to this recipe. One, I think, was a particularly good idea and one was a particularly bad idea.

I decided to not use any shrimp in my version, but if I had access to really good, large shrimp, I would totally use them. I think the lightness of the seafood would help the dish. But this was neither here nor there.

I think my good idea was to make this in a cast iron skillet. It allowed for even heat distribution and you ended up with some crusty edges which is what paella is known for. Normally paella is made in a very specialized pan, but if you aren’t making it regularly, it makes sense to use something that you probably have on hand.

My bad idea was using brown rice instead of white rice. It took forever to cook. Don’t do this. Just use short grain white rice (although not the instant kind) and you’ll be in much better shape. If you can find specially labeled paella rice, even better.

The Allioli

There some good spicy flavors going on in this dish and a garlic-packed sauce is the perfect complement. Allioli, or aioli, is almost like a mayonnaise, but slightly different. You heat the egg yolks first and pack in other flavors: mainly garlic.

So you’ll need these things!

Kinda like mayo!

Start by smashing your garlic cloves and adding them to a medium bowl. Use a fork to mash them up a bit in the bowl. Then whisk in the egg yolks, water, vinegar, and salt.

Set this bowl over a simmering water bath, but make sure that the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Continue to whisk until the eggs reach about 140 degrees. A thermometer really helps, but if you don’t have one handy, it should be hot to the touch, but not burning or simmering at all.

Continue to whisk, maintaining that temperature for 3 minutes. Be careful not to let it get too hot or the eggs will completely cook. Then remove it from the heat and let the yolks cool completely to room temperature.

Next, gradually whisk in oil in a very thin stream until mixture is thick. Cooking the yolks makes it a bit easier to incorporate the oil. Then season with pepper!

You can make this in advance without a problem. I think it gets a bit better after a chill in the fridge.

Aioli is a weird word.

The Paella

To start the paella, be sure to prep all your ingredients. This is one of those dishes where it’s kind of annoying to have to stop to chop an onion or something, so just make sure you have everything ready.

To start this, bring 3 cups of water to a rolling boil and add it to a bowl with the dried mushrooms. Let these sit for about an hour to reconstitute.

Flavor town.

When you’re ready, strain the broth out and squeeze as much liquid as possible from the mushrooms. Even though it’s kind of gross, I literally pick up the shrooms and wring them out like a wash cloth. There’s tons of flavor in those guys that you don’t want to waste.

Meanwhile, dice up the fresh mushrooms and an onion, and cube up the chicken.

Some basic choppin'

In your cast iron skillet, add two tablespoons of oil over high heat. Add the chicken in two batches, searing the pieces well on each side.

After the chicken is seared (about five minutes), remove it to a bowl and add a bit more oil. Then add the mushrooms and cook for another few minutes until they are seared. Finally add the onions and chopped garlic and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Cook all this for just a minute or two on high heat. You goal is just to get them started and bring some flavor to the party.

Then you can add your mushrooms and onions to your chicken.

Lightly cooked.

Working with saffron is super-fun. This is the first time I’ve had my hands on some really good stuff.

I added my saffron to about 1/2 Cup of water to let them kind of bloom and start giving off some color.

Just look at that color!

Devil sperm.

To get the paella ready for the oven, add a few more tablespoons of oil to the pan along with the rice over medium high heat.

Again, don’t use brown rice like me people. It was a bad idea.

Use the right rice please.

Once the rice is coated well with oil and hot, add 3 cups of the mushroom stock the pan. Also add the tomatoes, spices, saffron (and broth).

Then stir in all the chicken, mushrooms, and onions. Add about 1/2-1 Cup of chicken stock to the dish. The liquid should basically cover the other ingredients.

Ready for a bake!

Bring this all to a simmer on the stove top and then add it to a 400 degree oven, uncovered.

It will probably need to cook for somewhere between 30-40 minutes.

Check it frequently if it looks really dry at any point, but the rice isn’t cooked, add a bit more chicken stock. It’s done when the liquid is gone and the rice is cooked through.

If you were to add seafood to this, you would want to add it in the last few minutes. Cooking shrimp for 30 minutes is never a good idea.

Great color.

This dish had lots of really good flavor, but my rice never really cooked all the way through. Brown rice is just too sturdy to use in a dish like this.

I ended up cooking mine for about 75 minutes and eventually the rice softened enough that we could eat it.

But it was a struggle.

So feel free to make this. It was delicious. Just use the right kind of rice.