Better than it looks. Promise.

The first time I saw tempeh in the store I thought that whoever first made it must have been very hungry. It doesn’t look too appetizing.

The first time I ate tempeh I thought that whoever first made it was a freakin’ genius.

I think it’s one of the most under-rated foods around. Trust me. It’s not just for vegetarians and health nuts. It’s for anyone who likes really good food that easy to make.

Tempeh has more flavor and texture than tofu and is about ten times easier to make.

In fact, one of my favorite tacos to this day is my crispy tempeh tacos. This is actually kind of a riff on that dish made as a breakfast instead of a dinner. I ate this breakfast two days in a row which is pretty rare for me. It was just that good.

The Tempeh Scramble

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

4-6 ounces tempeh, crumbled
1/2 red or orange pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 scallions, diced
2 tablespoons salsa
4 large eggs, scrambled
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
3 ounces pepper jack cheese, grated
1 avocado, sliced
Cilantro
Flour tortillas
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Cast Iron Skillet

Directions:

1) Crumble tempeh and dice all your veggies. Mix the veggies in a bowl with salsa.

2) Add the small amount of vegetable oil to a cast iron skillet and get it hot over medium-high heat.

3) Add the tempeh and cook until it's well browned, about 5-6 minutes.

4) Stir in veggies and salsa and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a minute or two until veggies are soft.

5) Scramble eggs and add eggs to skillet. Stir vigorously so eggs mix with other ingredients. Cook until eggs are almost all cooked, probably just a minute or two.

6) Add on grated cheese and stick the pan in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about a minute just to melt the cheese.

7) Serve scramble with warm tortillas, cilantro, and avocado!

Tempeh Tempeh

I’ve already raved in this post about my love for tempeh, but the reality is that it might be kind of hard for you to find. I only know of one health food store in my town that sells it.

Most grocery stores don’t carry it unfortunately. Maybe the demand isn’t quite there yet. But call around to a few places and you should be able to find it somewhere.

If you’re curious what tempeh is, it’s basically just fermented whole soy beans that have been mixed with other flavors like flax seeds or, in this case, random vegetables.

The nice thing about tempeh is that you can prepare it a million different ways. You can slice it thinly or just crumble it up. I thought for a scramble like this, it would be better to just crumble it.

Super easy to use.

The Veggies

While I listed specific vegetables in the recipe, I’d just encourage you to use what you have in your fridge. Some kind of pepper is good and something like an onion or scallion is a good idea.

It’s pretty flexible though… kind of like an omelet.

A few chopped veggies.

Whatever veggies you are using, dice them up and then stir them together with some salsa. This will give the dish a nice Tex-Mex feel.

Adding a tex-mex element.

Cooking the Scramble

I used my cast iron skillet for this dish, but you could use any large skillet really. I do recommend using one that is oven-safe so you can transfer the pan to the oven at the end and melt the cheese quickly.

The first step is to brown the tempeh. Add a small drizzle of oil to the pan and then add all the tempeh. Over medium-high heat, it’ll take 5-6 minutes to brown nicely. It’s pretty hard to burn this stuff. It’s very sturdy.

Way easier than tofu!

Once the tempeh is browned, add in the veggies and salsa and cook for another minute or two until the veggies are soft.

Then pour in your scrambled eggs!

Already smells good.

Everything will cook pretty fast at this point.

Just stir it all together and let it cook until the eggs are almost completely cooked.

This is about perfect. It looks like a hot mess, but it’ll smell great.

Not sure how many style points I get here...

Top the whole scramble with some cheese and stick it in a hot oven for a minute or two just to melt the cheese.

Can't forget the cheese.

You could just eat this as-is or serve it as a side. If you want to make a really good meal out of it though, serve it with some flour tortillas, avocado, and maybe some fresh cilantro.

Delicious breakfast.

There’s a lot of nice things about this meal. For one, I guarantee you that you won’t miss the meat. The tempeh is very flavorful, filling, and has a great texture.

The other nice thing is that this whole thing takes less than 30 minutes to make. You could also easily double or triple it and feed a crowd.

This is a great introduction to tempeh if you’ve never tried it before so hunt some down and give it a go!

Well, this worked!

One of my favorite breakfasts or brunches to make on a lazy weekend day is crepes.

I like them because the batter is very easy to make and once you get the hang of them, I actually think they are easier to make than pancakes!

Plus you can fill them with all kinds of delicious stuff.

The problem I’ve encountered with crepes is that it’s hard to feed a crowd with them. You can only make one at a time and people usually want 2-3 for a meal so if you’re feeding four people, that’s 10-12 crepes!

Then one day the idea of a crepe pie smacked me over the head and I had to try it immediately.

It worked better than I ever thought it would.

Savory Crepe Pie

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Basic Crepe Batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 large eggs
1.5 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted butter (plus some for the pan)

Filling:
8 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
1/2 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
6-8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
Salt and pepper
Butter, for the pie pan

Helpful Equipment:
Large nonstick skillet or crepe pan

Directions:

1) Make your crepe batter by mixing the dry ingredients together in a bowl and the wet ingredients (except butter) in a separate bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Whisk in melted butter. Batter should be pretty runny. Let batter sit while you prep the filling.

2) Slice mushrooms, dice peppers, onions, and garlic. Add mushrooms to a large skillet with a drizzle of olive oil and saute over medium-high heat until the mushrooms release their liquid and soften, about 5-6 minutes.

3) Add other filling ingredients (except cheese) to the skillet and cook for another 4-5 minutes until peppers soften. Season filling with salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of dried thyme. Set filling aside.

4) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

5) Using a large nonstick skillet, or crepe pan, add a small amount of butter over medium-high heat. Pour in about 1/2 cup of crepe batter and swirl it around the pan so it flattens out. Cook for 30-45 seconds on the first side until it firms up, then carefully flip the crepe and cook for another 15-20 seconds. Repeat until you have 4 large crepes. The batter will make 5-6 crepes so you can mess up one without worry.

6) Butter a pie pan and lay a crepe in the bottom of the pan. Add half of the mushroom filling and 1/3 of the grated cheese.

7) Top with a second crepe and 1/3 of the cheese.

8) Top with a third crepe. So the middle layer is just cheese basically.

9) Add rest of filling and cheese to top of the pie and top with the fourth crepe. Kind of crimp the edges of the crepe around the edges of the pie so it is mostly sealed.

10) Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

11) Let cool briefly and then slice and serve!

The Filling

Over the years, I’ve put together dozens of different crepe fillings. Sweet, savory, fruity, cheesy… you name it, you can probably stuff it in a crepe.

So I don’t want you to get the impression that this filling is the only filling that you can use for this recipe. This is just the one I used and it worked really well.

Good winter veggies.

Rinse and slice up the mushrooms and dice up your veggies. It’s okay to keep them in pretty big chunks. You don’t want the veggies to disappear in the dish.

Great flavors.

Then just add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet and toss in the mushrooms. Cook them over medium high heat until they start to soften and release their water. Then you can add in all the other veggies and continue to cook until they are soft.

Total cooking time for this will probably be in the 10 minute range. There’s actually a lot of wiggle room in how much you cook the veggies. It is important to saute them though so you can cook off some of the water in the veggies. Otherwise the filling would be very watery in your final dish.

When the veggies are cooked, season the filling with salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, and dried thyme.

Very important.

The Crepes

This is my basic crepe batter recipe. It’s never failed me really. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken right?

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl (minus the melted butter). Then stir the wet into the dry and finally stir in the butter.

Ideally, let this batter sit for a few minutes before making the crepes.

I like to make the batter, then make the filling, and by the time the filling is done the batter is rested and ready to go.

Pretty easy batter.

Like I said, I find cooking crepes easier than pancakes honestly. That said, you might mess up one or two. Don’t worry about it if you do. Since these are going in a layered dish, they don’t have to be perfect.

When you’re ready to cook a crepe, just add a small amount of butter to a large nonstick pan or a crepe pan and then pour in about 1/3-1/2 cup of crepe batter. Swirl it around in the pan so it flows out and forms an even, very thin crepe.

Cook the crepe for about 45 seconds on the first side and then give it a flip. Flipping is always the part that people mess up but just do your best. Like I said, they don’t have to be perfect.

Takes maybe a minute!

You need four crepes to make this dish so just go ahead and make four and stack them up on a plate or something.

Making the Pie

You can use almost any kind of pie dish that you have. Is it important to have something round though so the crepes fit snuggly in there.

To make sure the crepes don’t stick to your pan, butter the thing really well.

Butter is important.

Then lay in one crepe and make sure to push it down so it’s snug against all the walls of the pie pan. Then add about 1/2 of your mushroom filling and 1/3 of your grated cheese.

Bottom layer.

Then toss on the second crepe. For the middle layer, I just did an all cheese layer. So add another 1/3 of the cheese to this layer.

Speaking of cheese, be sure to use a good flavorful cheese for this. You don’t want to use a lot of cheese, but make sure to use good stuff! I used a nice sharp white cheddar.

Just cheese on this layer!

Add on the third crepe and then the rest of your filling stuff.

It should all stack up very nicely.

More of the same.

Put the top crepe on and kind of press the edges down around the sides of the pie pan. Again, don’t freak out if it isn’t perfect.

Stick this whole thing in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

The great part about baking this is that the top and bottom crepes actually get a bit crispy which is nice and then the center is just this awesome savory party.

So good!

I was worried that this would just fall apart when I sliced it, but if you let it cool for just a minute or two when you pull it out of the oven, it actually slices really nicely.

You can even make out all the layers.

One of my favorite brunches.

If this is all your serving, assume about 1/4 of the pie per person. If you’re serving this with some other stuff then you could cut it into sixths and be fine.

The good news is that you can make these in advance and then just toss them in the oven if you’re having people over.

This is the right way to do crepes for a group!

Quick. Simple. Delicious.

There’s come a point after every Thanksgiving I’ve ever hosted or attended where there’s a few huge bags of leftover turkey meat in the fridge and everybody has pretty much had as much turkey as they can take.

You will eat it with stuffing, put it on a sandwich, and probably sneak it at midnight, but sometimes even with all of that, you’ll be left with more turkey than you know what to do with.

This is when fajitas come in and save the day. They may just be the perfect way to use leftover turkey. Let me explain:

1) They take just a few minutes to make. After slaving away over the stove for days, it’s nice to have a quick meal.

2) They are somewhat healthy. They are mostly lean meat, veggies, and salsa. It’s actually a somewhat light meal after days of gorging.

3) They have a different flavor profile. Even though you’re using turkey, it has a completely different taste because of the spices.

Even though the actual turkey day is still a few days away, this is a great way to put a dent in some of those leftovers!

Leftover Turkey Fajitas

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1-1.5 pounds leftover turkey, chopped
1 red pepper, sliced
1 orange, yellow, or green pepper, sliced
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 jalapeno, sliced thin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Salt and pepper
12 flour tortillas

Toppings:
Sliced avocado
Salsa
Sour cream

Directions:

1) Chop up turkey roughly. You can use white or dark meat. Also slice peppers and onions into strips.

2) Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees and wrap tortillas in foil. Add tortillas to oven and let heat up for 5-10 minutes.

3) Add oil to a large skillet over high heat. Once hot, add the peppers and onions and cook until they are slightly caramelized, about 4 minutes.

4) Add chopped turkey to skillet with spices and a pinch of salt and pepper.

5) Toss ingredients together well and cook until the turkey is slightly browned.

6) Serve turkey mixture with warm flour tortillas and toppings.

Peppers and more Peppers

Like I said, one of the great things about fajitas is it gives you a chance to use some nice fresh veggies after days of carbs.

I like my fajitas to be really pepper-heavy so I usually use a red pepper, one other kind of pepper, and a jalapeno or two.

Essential fajitas ingredients.

Slice up the peppers and onions. For the jalapeno, if you’re using one, remove the seeds and chop it a bit smaller. Nobody will enjoy a huge slice of jalapeno in their fajitas.

This might take 5 minutes to prepare.

A good guide for size of slices.

Gobble Gobble

As far as the turkey goes, you can definitely use white or dark meat. I used leftover turkey from my apple cider brined turkey. I was worried about the apple flavors not going well with the fajitas, but they were delicious.

No problems at all.

There are some options when it comes to prepping the turkey. You could shred it, but I like my fajitas to have larger chunks of meat so I just roughly chopped my leftover turkey.

I like big chunks in my fajitas.

Cooking the Fajitas

Before you actually start cooking your fajitas, I’d recommend wrapping your tortillas in some foil and sticking them in a hot oven for 5 minutes or so to get them nice and warm.

The fajitas themselves only take about 10 minutes to cook at the maximum.

Start by heating your oil in a large skillet over high heat. Once it’s hot, add your onions and peppers and cook them until they start to caramelize a bit, about 5 minutes. Then add the turkey and spices and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Cook this all for a few more minutes and you’ll be ready to rock.

Really easy dish to pull together.

Cook the fajitas on a high heat is key so you get some browning on the veggies and on the turkey.

While they cook, I always like to get some fun toppings ready. For this meal, I just used some salsa, sour cream, and diced up an avocado.

Can't go wrong with these toppings.

Serve the fajitas with a few flour tortillas and pile on the toppings.

Two or three fajitas is a really good meal.

A good fajita.

There’s nothing tricky or hard about this recipe. It’s just straightforward good food which is all you need when you’re looking for a way to use your leftovers and relax.

If you have some turkey leftover after Thursday (who doesn’t?), try out the Tex-Mex route!

A bit on the bready side.

I cooked some calzones over the weekend because they won last week’s poll and they were darn close to a huge mess. Honestly, I would probably lock this guy away in the “never to be posted” file except for two things:

1) You guys voted for a calzone so I felt obligated to post on one, even if it isn’t top notch.

2) The filling for this calzone is out of this world. So you need to know about it.

Unfortunately my calzone dough left a lot to be desired. I have a quick fix for that though… use a different recipe than I did!

Southwestern Calzones

Yield: 4 Calzones

Prep Time: 30 minutes + Time for dough

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Filling:
1.5 pounds chicken breasts, diced
2 ears sweet corn
1 anaheim or poblano pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 Cup salsa
6-8 ounces pepper jack cheese, grated
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten with a tablespoon of water for egg wash

Calzone/pizza dough (I wasn't happy with the dough recipe I tried, so this is my standard pizza dough recipe which is surefire.)
5 Cups (22.5 ounces) bread flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons honey or sugar
3 Teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 Teaspoons instant yeast
3 Tablespoons olive oil (plus more for the dough later)
1 3/4 Cups room temperature water

Directions:

For dough...

1) Add all the ingredients except flour to a large bowl and let sit until yeast starts to bubble. Add in flour and stir together with a large spoon until the dough comes together.

2) Dip one hand in a bowl of warm water and vigorously knead the dough in the bowl, constantly turning the bowl, until the dough comes together and starts to firm up, about 4 minutes.

3) Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

4) Continue to work it for another 2-3 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth and very elastic.

5) Cut the dough into 4 pieces, roll each quarter into a ball, and add each ball to a plastic bag coated lightly with olive oil.

6) Let dough sit at room temp for 15 minutes and then store in the fridge overnight.

7) Remove the dough from the fridge 2 hours before making pizza.

To Make Calzones:

1) Char corn by placing it directly on a gas burner or on a grill. Turn every 30 seconds or so until the kernels are lightly charred. Remove and cut corn off the cob.

2) Add oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until cooked through, about 8 minutes. Add peppers and cook for another few minutes until peppers start to soften. Add corn and salsa and stir until warm. Season with salt and pepper.

3) Roll a calzone dough out into a 6-8 inch round. Add grated cheese to bottom half of calzone and top with about a cup of filling.

4) Fold calzone over, being careful to press out as much air as possible. Crimp edges of calzone so it is sealed well. Slice a few slits in the top of the calzone so steam can escape. Brush calzones with egg wash.

5) Bake calzones on a greased/oiled baking sheet for 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees until they are golden brown and the filling is bubbling.

6) Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Dough Issues

I’m not even going to link to the dough recipe I tried out for these guys because I found it to be not great. I guess it’s possible that I messed it up, but I found that it was way too bready and didn’t really brown correctly. Don’t get me wrong, it was completely edible, but I’m pretty sure we can all do better.

The recipe I included is for my standard pizza dough which I’ve used to make calzones many times with great results. I was just trying a new recipe this time around and it didn’t work out great.

Luckily, the process for making the dough is pretty much the same regardless of recipe. Start by combining the sugar, salt, yeast, oil, and water in a bowl and let it sit until the yeast starts to bubble, about five minutes. Then add that to your flour and stir it until it forms a ball. Knead the dough vigorously with your hand by dipping your hand in water and working it. Do this for about 10 minutes and the dough should be really soft but not sticky at all. If it ever gets really sticky, you need to add in more flour.

The dough.

You can also use a stand mixer to make the dough in which case you just work it with the dough hook for about 5 minutes until it’s soft, but not sticky.

Immediately cut the dough into your four pieces for calzones and then put them in a lightly oiled plastic bag. Let them sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes and then move them to the fridge for at least two hours, although overnight is best. Remove them from the fridge about 90 minutes before you want to make the calzones.

The Filling

While the dough was kind of a bust for me, the filling was right on. It was pretty basic, just some chicken and spicy peppers.

Part of the filling...

The really tasty part of the filling though was some Olathe sweet corn that is now in season. If you don’t know about this stuff, I’m pretty sure it’s the most advertised vegetable I’ve ever seen. There are commercials for it every 30 minutes here in Colorado. It’s in every store with huge signs over promoting it’s awesomeness.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s very good corn, but hey… it’s still just corn.

The most advertised corn in history.

I tried something new for the corn this time around. I husked it and just slapped it right on my burner like I would if I were roasting peppers. Normally I would’ve grilled it, but it was raining while I was making this recipe, so I tried this method out. Turn it every 30 seconds or so until it’s very nice and charred.

It worked like a charm!

Char baby char!

To make the rest of the filling, just add some oil to a large skillet and cook the chicken until it’s cooked through over medium-high heat. Then add the diced peppers and cook until they are slightly soft. Finally add in the charred corn and a good dollop of salsa.

Stir this all together and you’re ready to make some calzones!

Ready to fill!

Making and Baking Calzones

Once your filling is done for the calzones, roll out one of your calzone doughs into about an 6-8 inch round and put about an ounce or two of grated cheese on the bottom half of the dough. Then pile in as much filling as you think will fit! I wouldn’t use more than about a cup per calzone, but go crazy.

Stuffed full.

Fold the calzone over and press out as much air as possible from the inside. Pinch the calzone around the outside edges to seal it well and then cut a few slices in the top of the calzone so that steam can escape as it cooks.

As you do these, line them up on a well-greased baking sheet and brush them all with a bit of egg wash.

Don't forget to oil the pan...

Bake these guys for about 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees. They should be golden brown on the outside and the filling should be nice and bubbly.

Not the prettiest thing in the world...

As I said, I wasn’t 100% happy with the dough recipe I used. As you can see in the above photo, it was really doughy and didn’t quite brown enough for me. I like a really crispy crunch on my calzones. It was totally edible, but I think you’ll have better results with the recipe I listed above.

If you have leftover filling it goes great in quesadillas or tacos. Honestly, it’s so delicious you could just eat it with a spoon!

From grill to chip.

I’m in complete grill mode right now. I’ve grilled something outside a few days a week now for the last few weeks and I’m having a hard time picturing how I ever survived without a grill. It’s a lot faster too grill stuff, the clean up is easy which Betsy likes, and once you get the hang of it, I find that the food is almost always better.

While grilled meat is always a star, people forget that grilling food just does fantastic things to it in general. Any food that has sugars in it, it’ll slightly caramelize them. It evaporates a lot of liquid, enhancing flavors. It can give a slightly charred flavor to certain foods which is great in small doses.

One quick appetizer that benefits hugely from the power of the grill is salsa. I’ve made a few different varieties of this over the past month or two and, honestly, it’s pretty hard to go wrong.

Grilled Salsa

Yield: 4-5 cups

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

4 Roman tomatoes
5-6 tomatillos
2-3 jalapenos
1/2 red onion
3-4 cloves garlic
A handful of sweet peppers
Handful of cilantro
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt

Helpful Equipment:
Blender
Grill pan
Grill (or you could roast in the oven)

Directions:

1) Wash veggies and chop them into big pieces, halves and quarters.

2) Toss veggies with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt.

3) Add veggies to grill pan or foil and grill over high heat for 10-15 minutes until veggies are blistered and bursting.

4) Let cool for at least a few minutes.

5) Pulse in a blender until it reaches the consistency you want.

6) Serve warm or cold with chips!

The Veggies

It’s tough for me to write recipes for stuff like salsa because I usually just wing it and encourage you to do the same. I start at the store or farmers market and just look for stuff that looks nice and fresh. That’s the most important part of a salsa.

On this given day I decided to do a half tomato, half tomatillo thing, which I’ve never done before. I really like the mix though.

If you have lots of colors on your cutting board, you’re off to a good start!

A colorful assortment.

The veggies are super-easy to prep for this. Since we’re grilling them, you want to keep them pretty whole. I cut most of my stuff in half unless it was really big, then I cut it into quarters. I kept my jalapeno seeds in so it would be pretty spicy. Take them out if you want it less spicy.

I tossed all my veggies in a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkled them with a bit of kosher salt before tossing them in my grill pan. If you don’t have a grill pan you could wrap everything in foil and poke some holes in it.

Keep them chunky.

Grilling the Salsa

Crank up the heat on the grill and let your veggies cook for about 10-15 minutes. If you can, keep the lid closed and turn the veggies every few minutes to make sure they are cooking evenly.

Now. If you don’t have a grill, I’d recommend roasting these guys in a 450 degree oven for 10-15 minutes and you should end up with a very close finished product.

You’ll know you’re done when the peppers start blistering and the tomatoes bursting!

Blisters are good.

Once all the veggies have become a bit tender and charred, remove them from the grill to let them cool a bit.

Then add them to your blender (you may have to work in two batches) along with a small handful of cilantro.

Pulse it up until it’s the consistency you want. I recommend keeping it a bit on the chunky side.

NOTE: When blending, make sure not to overfill your blender or use hot foods as they could splatter which isn’t a good experience.

After a quick whirl.

It should go without saying that you can serve this up warm or cold with lots of chips!

Gets better on day two!

As with most salsas, I found that this stuff was even better on day two actually when the flavors had a chance to meld a bit.

I don’t mind store bought salsa one bit, but this is a very quick way to make a good amount of very tasty salsa.

Give it a shot the next time you’re itching for some Tex-Mex!

Peri Peri Good.

Peruvian chicken is all the rage these days with places like Nando’s popping up all over the map. There’s a very serious reason for this:

Peruvian chicken is the bomb.

I was very happy to see this win the poll last week (narrowly) because I had just eaten some great Peruvian chicken while I was visiting DC for work last week. I was very excited to try to reproduce it at home.

I’m not really sure that I got it 100% correct because I kind of just winged it, but it was close enough to name it the same thing. It should go without saying that it was also delicious.

Peri Peri Chicken

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes + marinade time

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, butterflied or cut into pieces

Peri Peri Sauce:
10-20 red chilis, traditionally you would use piri piri (bird) chilis, but I used red jalapenos
6-8 sweet peppers
4 cloves garlic
A small handful of fresh oregano
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
1 Cup white wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons paprika
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
Pinch of salt

Simple Coleslaw:
1/2 large cabbage, shredded
3-4 carrots, shredded
3 scallions, diced
1/2 Cup mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Pinch of salt
2 Teaspoons dried mustard (optional)

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor
Kitchen Shears

Directions:

1) To prepare sauce, roughly chop peppers and garlic. Leave the seeds in the peppers.

2) Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add peppers and garlic and cook for a few minutes until fragrant and soft.

3) Add vinegar, spices, herbs, and salt. Stir to combine. Simmer for a few minutes.

4) Remove from heat and let cool, then blend or process until smooth.

5) Butterfly chicken by cutting out backbone and pressing it flat. Use half of sauce to marinate chicken overnight. Reserve other half of sauce for serving.

6) For coleslaw, shred veggies and combine with other ingredients. Keep refrigerated until you serve it.

7) To grill chicken, heat grill and add chicken breast side up. Cook chicken for 30-40 minutes with lid closed. Turn chicken every 8-10 minutes. Chicken should register 160 degrees Fahrenheit in the thighs.

8) Remove chicken and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Then serve with slaw and extra sauce.

Preparing the Sauce

Traditionally this sauce is made with piri piri peppers, also known as bird chilis. These are small guys and they pack a punch. Depending on the heat level you want in your sauce, I’d use between 10 and 20 of them if you can find them.

I wasn’t able to find any so I just subbed in red jalapenos. They worked just fine but are way larger. So I used about 8 of them.

Lots of peppers...

Chop up all the peppers really roughly. Cut off the stems, but leave all the seeds.

Add the oil to a medium pot over medium heat. Once it’s hot add all the peppers and garlic and cook for a few minutes until the veggies are soft. Then add in the spices, vinegar, and salt and stir everything together.

Let this simmer for a few minutes and then remove it from the heat. This stuff will make your eyes water!

A quick cook.

Once this is reasonably cool, give it a whirl in the blender or food processor. You want it to be pretty smooth, but it’s fine if there are some chunks of peppers.

Then use half of it to marinate the chicken and save the other half as a sauce for the finished chicken.

Cool It Down Coleslaw

This is a pretty spicy sauce and dish and so it helps to have some cooling sides to help out with the heat. Coleslaw is the perfect choice.

Basics.

I highly recommend using a food processor to shred up the carrots and cabbage because it’ll only take a minute instead of the 10 minutes it would take with a box grater.

Whatever works for you though.

Then just mix the shredded veggies with the other ingredients. Feel free to adjust the ingredients to your tastes. You might like your creamier or saltier or with more mustard than I added to mine.

Go crazy. Make it your own.

All mixed up!

Preparing the Chicken

Ideally, you can marinate your chicken overnight in half of your Peri Peri sauce. A gallon sized plastic bag works great for this.

Also, because I was grilling my chicken, I butterflied it. If you were roasting it in the oven, you could just keep it whole or you could use whatever chicken pieces you like.

Butterflying a chicken is really only a two step process, but it’s one of those things that’s much easier to explain via video. I recommend this video from Bon Appetit (sound) that shows the process. It’s not hard necessarily, but you’ll need some good kitchen shears. CPR training doesn’t hurt.

If you do butterfly it and marinate it, you’ll end up with something like this.

Tricky maneuver.

When you’re ready to grill, get the grill hot and throw your chicken on breast side up. Depending on the size of the chicken, it’ll need to cook for 30-40 minutes total.

Good grillin'

Turn it a few times as it cooks and feel free to baste it with more marinade as it cooks.

I recommend using a meat thermometer to know when it’s done. You’re shooting for about 160 degrees Fahrenheit in the thighs.

My grill was a bit hot when I turned my bird and it got a bit scorched on one side. It looks worse than it was though.

Consider it flavor right?

Grill was a bit hot!

When the bird comes off the grill, cover it with foil and let it rest for five or ten minutes before cutting it up and serving it.

You’re going to want to serve this with lots of extra sauce because the sauce is pretty killer.

Lots of sauce is a good thing.

If the whole butterflying thing is intimidating, you could use any cut of chicken that you want. Just marinate them and toss them on the grill.

It’s guaranteed to be good. Especially if you slather it in sauce!

I go a bit overboard sometimes on stuffing.

Sometimes nature gives you a hint and you’d usually be stupid not to take advantage of it. Many times these hints are clues to STAY AWAY. See: brightly colored toads. But sometimes nature’s hint can be inviting.

I’m pretty sure this is why squash are hollow. It’s nature’s way of saying, “Go ahead. Stuff me with a delicious maple/sausage/orzo stuffing. It’s a really good idea.”

And so you would be stupid not to do this thing. It natural after all.

I went subtle for this week’s poll winner (maple syrup). Maple can be one of those flavors that can take over a dish if not used carefully. A little bit goes a long way and adds the perfect richness and flavor. The maple in this stuffed squash recipe really takes it to another level.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

- 2 large acorn squash, halved
- 1 pound hot Italian sausage
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1/2 red pepper, diced
- 1/2 green pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil (might not need it depending on sausage fat content)
- 8 ounces orzo pasta
- 4 Teaspoons butter
- 4 Tablespoons pure maple syrup (the good stuff please)
- 1 Tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
- Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions:

1) Slice acorn squash in half. Scoop out seeds with a spoon and add 1 tsp. butter, 1 Tablespoon syrup, a pinch of sage, and a pinch of salt and pepper to each squash.

2) Cover the squash with foil and bake, skin side down, at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes until the flesh is tender.

3) Meanwhile, cook orzo according to package.

4) In a large pan, add sausage and cook on medium-high heat until browned and fat is rendered. Add peppers, onions, and garlic and continue to cook until veggies are soft.

5) Mix orzo into sausage mixture.

6) When squash are done, stuff each squash with 1/4 of the filling. They will pretty much overflow. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of each squash.

7) Bake again at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and filling very hot, about 15 minutes.

8) Serve immediately.

Baking the squash

The most intimidating part of this recipe is chopping open the squash. Their skins are tough and thick.

No dainty knives shall pass.

What you need for this is a sturdy chef’s knife. Hold the squash so the stem is pointing away from you, then stab the squash straight down in the direct middle of the gourd. The knife should be perpendicular to the cutting board.

Push the knife down so it’s parallel with the cutting board and as you push, the knife will cut open half of the squash. Repeat on the other side and the squash should split right open.

Good for fillin'!

Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds inside.

Then add 1 Tablespoon of maple syrup, 1 Teaspoon butter, a pinch of fresh sage, and a pinch of salt and pepper to each squash half. This will smell really good already.

There's syrup in there.

Wrap each gourd half in foil and bake them, skin side down, at 350 degrees until the squash is tender, about 45-60 minutes.

Be careful when unwrapping the squash because there will be lots of steam!

Good as-is!

Making the filling

While your squash bake, you can prepare the filling. I like using orzo pasta for filling, but you could also use any kind of rice if you wanted.

I like orzo because it plumps up nicely and absorbs lots of flavor.

Pasta. Not rice.

You can cook the orzo according to it’s package. Drain it and set it aside.

For the sausage part, start by adding your sausage to a large pan and cook it over medium high heat until it’s nicely browned and the fat is mostly rendered out.

Then add the onions, peppers, and garlic and cook until the veggies are soft, just a few minutes.

Sausage and peppers

Once the sausage is nicely browned and the veggies are soft, add the orzo to the sausage and stir well to combine. If the filling looks dry, feel free to add a drizzle of olive oil. It probably won’t need it though.

Finishing the dish

You probably know what’s next. Fill each squash with a quarter of the filling. They will be overflowing with filling which is awesome.

Top each squash with some Parmesan cheese also!

Ready to go.

Bake these guys until the cheese is melted and the filling is hot, probably 15 more minutes.

One of these is pretty much a meal. They are large and filling!

From above!

The best part about this dish is digging your spoon way down deep into the squash where that sweet maple syrup and butter rests. The saltiness and spiciness of the sausage works great with the sweetness of the maple syrup.

Leftovers keep great for these guys also which is good because you won’t be able to eat more than one in a sitting.

So do what nature commands and go stuff a squash already!

An acquired taste maybe...

I hear that liver and onions is an acquired taste, but if that’s true I must have acquired it in the womb because I’ve always loved this dish.

The softness of the liver (if it’s cooked right) and the crispy coating on it is my definition of comfort food and plus you get to try a cut of meat that’s kind of uncommon, which is always something I like.

My one problem with the traditional dish is that I could never figure out why people used just onions when they prepare it. So I figured I’d try some other veggies along with the onions and guess what: Improvement!

Liver and Onions

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 pound beef liver (calf liver is the best if you can find it), sliced thin
2 Cups milk
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1 red pepper, sliced thin
1 green or yellow pepper, sliced thin
2 Russet potatoes, diced into 1/4 inch cubes
3 Tablespoons neutral oil (for cooking veggies)
2 Cups flour
1 Teaspoon paprika
1 Teaspoon dried mustard
Salt and pepper
1/3-1/2 Cup (3/4-1 stick) of unsalted butter (for cooking liver)
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/3 Cup cream (approx)

Helpful Equipment:
Large cast iron skillet (on Amazon)

Directions:

1) Slice liver 1/4 inch thin and lay in a shallow pan. Cover with milk and let marinate for 20-30 minutes while you prep everything else.

2) Mix flour and spices together in a medium bowl.

3) Slice peppers and onions so they are roughly the same width. Peel and dice potatoes.

4) Add a few Tablespoons neutral oil to a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and add all the veggies. Stir and cook until soft, about 10-15 minutes.

5) Remove veggies to an oven-safe bowl or dish and store in a warm oven (200 degrees) until needed.

6) Take pan off heat while you prep liver. Take liver slices and dredge lightly in flour mixture.

7) Add butter to cast iron skillet and return to medium-high heat.

8) Once butter is melted and hot, add liver slices. Don't crowd the pan. Work in a few batched if you need to. Cook liver for about 90 seconds on each side. Don't overcook it or it will be really rough.

9) Remove liver from pan and turn heat down to low. Add balsamic vinegar and scrape up any bits in the pan. Add cream and stir to combine.

10) Spoon balsamic sauce over liver and veggies and serve immediately.

Preparing the liver

When you get your liver (you’ll probably have to ask your butcher), it most likely won’t be sliced (unless you have a really nice butcher). That’s okay though because liver is really tender and easy to slice. Just be gentle with it and slice up about a pound of it into 1/4 inch thick slices.

If there are any tough tendons or something, just cut them off. Pile your slices in a dish.

Try to slice this pretty thin.

Once your liver is sliced, cover the slices with milk and let them marinate for 20-30 minutes. The milk will tenderize the meat and keep it really nice and juicy. It’s not an essential step but I think it’s worth it. It also makes it easier for the flour to stick on later.

Buttermilk might work too...

While the liver is marinating, get your flour mixture together for coating the liver slices. Add a few cups of flour to a medium bowl along with a good pinch of salt and pepper, some paprika, and dried mustard. You could use a wide variety of spices here, but I wanted to keep mine pretty simple.

Pretty basic.

Also, wash all your veggies, peel your potatoes, and slice and dice them all up. You’re looking for pretty even slices on the onions and peppers and then a nice even dice on the potatoes.

Why stop at onions?

Cooking the dish

This dish is technically a one-pot dish since it should all be cooked in a nice, sturdy cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.

Cook the veggies first by adding a few tablespoons of neutral oil to your cast iron skillet and add the onions, peppers, and potatoes. Cook these for about 10 or 15 minutes until all the veggies are nice and soft. Be sure to test the potatoes as they’ll be the last thing to be nice and tender.

This makes me hungry.

Once your veggies are done, remove them to an oven safe bowl or dish and keep them in a warm oven until we need them (200 degrees).

Back to the liver. Take your skillet off the heat while you prep the liver. Take the slices and lightly dredge them in the flour mixture. Dust off any extra flour and set the slices on a plate. You don’t need a really thick coating for this dish.

Also get out some butter!

Butter because... why not?

Now you could cook these in oil, but there’s something really decadent and delicious about cooking them in butter. This isn’t a time to count calories people, just go with it.

Add about 3/4 of a stick (3 ounces) of butter into your cast iron skillet and crank up the heat to medium-high. Let it melt. It should be bubbling nicely. As an aside, there’s no need to clean out your pan between the veggies and the liver. Any oil leftover will just help cook the liver.

Once the butter is hot, add slices of liver. Don’t overcrowd the pan and make sure the slices aren’t overlapping so they brown nicely.

Julia Childs would be proud of me.

These don’t need long to cook. About 90 seconds per side should do the trick. Try not to overcook them as liver gets tough pretty quickly when it’s overcooked. When they are done, remove them to a plate to rest.

Making the sauce

The sauce is optional as the liver is pretty good without it, but I figure if you have all this good butter and stuff in a pan, the country of France might come get you if you don’t make a sauce out of it.

This is a really easy sauce to make. Once all your liver is done, turn your heat down to low and add a few Tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Use the vinegar to scrape up any little bits stuck to the pan and stir it in with the butter and everything. Then add about 1/4-1/3 Cup of cream and stir it together until it’s combined.

The sauce goes great with the liver and the veggies. Serve this meal as soon as possible!

The sauce is KILLER.

So I know that this won’t be the most popular dish I’ve ever made, but I really enjoy it.

Any other liver lovers out there? Speak up!

Like roasted peppers? I have a treat for you!

When I was a kid, I remember we had a small garden out back behind our house. Ok. Actually it wasn’t that small. It was probably like 1/2 an acre. And we grew a huge amount of peppers – mostly green chiles.

We would pick them all off the plants and my dad would set them up on some wire mesh grates and then pull out an enormous butane torch. He would roast the crap out of all of them.

This of course led me to have a serious love for two things during my childhood: Fire. And roasted peppers.

Turns out that it’s not really realistic to set up a butane torch in a DC apartment, but you can get pretty close with a gas stove or really hot oven.

And if you like roasted peppers, well, this dip is for you my friend.

Roasted Pepper Dip

Yield: Makes 4 Cups

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

4-5 assorted roasted peppers. If I did this again, I think I would skip normal bell peppers. They don't add much flavor when roasted. Go with red peppers, banana peppers, green chiles, etc.
2 Jalapenos, roasted
1/2 onion, roasted (optional)
2 Cups yogurt (Greek yogurt would work also)
1/2 Cup sour cream
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Roast peppers in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning occasionally, until peppers are charred all around.

2) Add peppers to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to steam for a few minutes.

3) Don't wash the peppers, but rub them with your hands to remove as much skin as possible. No need to be completely thorough here.

4) Slice peppers and remove most of the seeds.

5) Dice peppers (dice the jalapenos very small) and add to a bowl. Let cool to room temperature before mixing in other ingredients.

6) Mix in sour cream, yogurt, and any other spices you are using. Taste for salt and pepper.

7) Serve with tortilla chips, pita chips, or anything that you can dip!

The Peppers

I kind of just grabbed some peppers for this dip but if I were to make it again I’d be a bit more thoughtful about it I think. For starters, roasted bell peppers don’t add much in the flavor department. I’d skip those entirely and maybe substitute some green chiles or something.

Also, you could also roast up half an onion. The caramelized onion would go great with all the other flavors.

An assortment of peppers...

Roasting the Peppers

Unless you happen to have a huge butane torch laying around, you’re gonna have to get creative about roasting these guys.

I’ve used my gas burners for roasting before, but I was roasting so many peppers this time around I decided to just do it in the oven. Lay out all the peppers (including the jalapenos) on a baking sheet and roast at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. Turn the peppers every few minutes.

Charred skin is what you’re looking for. When most of the skins are charred and shriveled, remove the peppers and add them to a big bowl.

All roasted up!

Cover this bowl tightly with plastic wrap so the peppers can steam for a few minutes. This will make the skins really easy to peel off.

Peeling and chopping

Since this is all going in a dip, there’s really no need to be completely thorough about the peeling process here. I wouldn’t recommend rinsing the peppers either because that washes off a lot of the flavorful juices.

Instead just use your fingers to rub or peel off as much of the charred skin as you can. Then slice the peppers in half and discard the seeds. Again, it doesn’t have to be a perfect job.

A bit messy...

Dice up all your peppers and add them to a bowl!

One tip: If you’re using the jalapenos, dice them very small. I made the mistake of dicing them the same size as all the other peppers and when you got a jalapeno, it was a bit over-powering because of the size of the pieces.

This smells pretty solid.

Once you have your peppers chopped, let them cool to room temperature and then stir in all your other ingredients!

Taste it as you go and adjust the seasonings to your liking. You can obviously add salt and pepper, but feel free to experiment with other spices as well like maybe oregano, basil, chives, or parsley.

Also, you might need a bit more yogurt or sour cream based on how many peppers you end up using. Just eyeball it here people.

Great colors!

Add this to a bowl and serve it with tortilla chips, pita, or really anything that allows you to scoop a maximum amount of dip and put it in your mouth.

From above!

So while this may not be as fun as playing with a butane torch on a nice Fall day, the flavors are great and it’s pretty versatile. You can also make it spicy or just savory.

This would be awesome for a football game and as you might imagine, if you let it sit for a day or so in the fridge, the flavors get even better as the meld together.

Perfectly cooked!

I’ve almost (almost!) worked my way through all of our wedding presents. I think we actually did a really nice job of registering for things that we will actually use in life. Some of my pans are already a bit worn which I take as a good sign!

One of the presents that I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now was a bamboo steamer we received. I knew that I would use it and it would be awesome, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger. Dumplings would be the obvious choice (I’ll make those later now that I’m warmed up), but I wanted to start with something even simpler.

Steamed fish is pretty hard to screw up because even if you overcook it, the moisture keeps it really tender. I served this with a really delicious roasted veggie side and some good crusty bread. It was a hit!

Steamed Salmon w/ Roasted Veggies

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

4-6 ounces of nice salmon per person. I bought about 1.25 pounds (20 ounces) of salmon and it was perfect for 4 servings.
Some greens to layer in your steaming pot
Salt and pepper

Roasted Veggies: (Adapted from Whole Living Magazine)
2 medium fennel bulbs, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 orange pepper, sliced
1 can (16 ounces) chickpeas
1 pound seedless red grapes
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Bamboo steamer

Directions:

1) For the veggies, chop them all in slices (except the grapes). Try to keep them in fairly thick slices since you're going to be roasting them on pretty high heat.

2) Toss them with some olive oil and salt and pepper.

3) Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Stir them a few times throughout the cooking process to make sure they are cooking evenly.

4) For the fish, remove the skin by sliding a sharp long knife along the skin. Try to remove it as close to the skin as possible.

5) Take a pair of tweezers and remove any pin bones in the fish or at least warn your diners that there will be bones in the fish.

6) Cut the fish into 4-6 ounce pieces and salt and pepper them. Layer them over a bed of greens in your bamboo steamer and set the steamer over a pot of simmering water.

7) Steam for 10 minutes (or longer depending on fish thickness).

8) Serve everything as soon as possible!

The Steamer

Like I said, I used a nice bamboo steamer for this dish, but it’s not necessary to have one of these to make the dish. It’s just a heckuva lot easier if you do have one.

If you don’t though, here are two other methods you could use to steam the fish:

1) Make a Steamer – It’s a bit of work, but using instructions like these you can get creative and make a steamer that holds your fish and produces steam. The problem with a system like this is that it isn’t terribly efficient. The steam doesn’t really cook the fish as it rises. But it will work.

2) Wrap it in parchment – You can also just wrap the fish in parchment paper with some salt and pepper and bake it at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or so. The parchment will seal in any moisture from the fish, effectively steaming it. I’ve made fish like this a few times and it’s always really good.

All of that said though, this steamer was the easiest thing to use ever.

Before we get into that though, let’s talk about the roasted veggies.

Yep. Those are grapes.

This might look like kind of a weird assortment of veggies, but trust me, the flavor combination is out of this world good. I was obviously really skeptical about the grapes. Will they explode? Will they burn? The answer is neither really, but they are tasty and go well with the other flavors.

Because we are roasting these guys, keep them in fairly large chunks. For the fennel, cut off the green stems and cut it down the center. Then remove the inner core and roughly slice the layers.

Everything else should be pretty standard to slice up. Just add everything to a large bowl and toss it with the olive oil and salt and pepper!

Very interesting flavors.

Lay this out on two baking sheets and bake it at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes. Be sure to stir it a few times as it cooks to make sure it cooks evenly.

Fishy Business

For this recipe, I bought a nice piece of salmon and cut it down myself. If you have a friendly fishmonger they might take care of this for you, but I consider it good practice.

To take the skin off the fish, take a sharp (preferably long and thin) knife and slowly run it down the length of the fish between the skin and the meat. The skin should separate pretty easily. Then you can chop your salmon into four even pieces!

Don’t forget the pin bones! Salmon almost always have a series of inter-muscular bones called pin bones. The only reason it wouldn’t have these bones if it was processed for you already. These bones are usually about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches from the back side of the fillet. If you want to provide your guests with a flawless salmon eating experience, take a pair of tweezers and pluck out all the bones.

If you’re me and feeding a some hungry people, just warn them that there will be some bones and skip this step.

Pin bones suck.

Season each piece of salmon well with salt and pepper and lay them in your steamer on a bed of greens. Spinach works well for this or just any salad greens that you might have.

I already love my steamer!

What about the Skin?

You know me… I hate wasting stuff. Salmon skin happens to be one of the things that I hate wasting more than other things because you can make delicious salmon chips out of it!

Just slice the skin into strips and add them to a hot skillet with a bit of oil. Cook them for a few minutes until they are really crispy and golden brown. Then drain them on a towel.

Everyone will look at you funny until they try them. There will be no leftovers.

For the adventurous...

Back to the veggies

The veggies definitely take the longest to cook, so you want to start them first. When they are done they’ll be a mix of textures and flavors that is just really wonderful. The fennel goes well with the fish and the grapes are kind of sweet.

I’m making this mix again for sure.

The grapes were actually really good.

Cooking the Salmon

Once you have the fish cut into appropriate pieces, it’s dumb simple to cook assuming you have a steamer. Just stack the steamer up and set it over a pot of simmering water. After about 10 minutes the fish should be perfectly cooked. It might take a few minutes longer depending on the thickness of your fish.

I even served it with some of the wilted greens that it steamed on.

Crusty bread is a good side also.

I served it with some crusty bread that I toasted a bit.

This was a very healthy and simple dish to make. I made it on a week night actually.

I liked the fish the best, but Betsy was a big fan of the roasted veggies. I think I caught her sneaking some later in the night…