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Archive for the ‘Appetizers’ Category
Beloved and I are leaving at noon today, heading to Wisconsin for his family reunion. We’re looking forward to it, especially the drive, since we love to road trip and the weather is knock-your-eyes out gorgeous today. However, I can’t be sure if I’ll have time or internet access while we’re gone, so I may not post again or get around to reading blogs until our return Sunday night. Also, today is the last day of the month; my NaBloPoMo obligation is over and the thought of a break is rather welcome.
But we’ll see.
We’ll be stopping in Chicago overnight, and I made reservations at Roy Yamaguchi’s restaurant for dinner. Why Roy’s? Well, we love the place, for one. For another, it won’t require us to A) dress as if we’re attending Princess Diana’s wedding and 2) take a second mortgage out on the house. Seriously – Google “fine dining in Chicago”; the prices you’ll see will make your eyes hemorrhage. You know me – I love good food and am willing to pay for it, but $200? Per person? At those kinds of prices, I’ll worship it from afar, thank you very much.
Anyhoo. Another easy recipe today, especially if you like to grill/smoke/barbecue (or, in Beloved’s case, all three). The instructions for this require simple, indirect heat on your grill, but we put them in the smoker with the brisket this weekend and they were just fine. In fact, we’ve had to restrain ourselves from eating them all so we’d have some road trip snack food for today (Chicago is a six hour drive from our house).
Have a lovely day, y’all.
Smoked Almonds
Smoked Almonds
makes..a lot
1 pound natural (raw) almonds
1 1/2 tablespoons of your favorite hot sauce
2 teaspoons of your favorite barbecue rub
Set up the grill for indirect grilling.
Toss together all the ingredients until the nuts are well coated with the hot sauce and rub, then pour into a disposable aluminum pan (at least 9″ square) in an even layer. Cover and smoke until the nuts are crisp, about 3 hours.
Cool completely. Store in an airtight container if you have any leftover to store.
Printable version (requires Adobe Reader)
I am tired today – even Tech Guy here at the office mentioned how tired I look. He’s a sweetheart, and as a Type II diabetic who struggles with his diet was quite sympathetic when I told him that although I’d tried very hard to eat right this weekend, we ate out so much that it knocked me all out of whack – Bob Evans and Cheesecake Factory don’t exactly do local and sustainable. I further botched things up last night; we stopped on a whim at our absolute favorite restaurant in Ohio. They do serve locally obtained, unprocessed food, but if you throw alcohol and dessert into the mix, well…
Cut me some slack – I’m paying for it this morning. (It sure was tasty, though.)
At any rate, I’m back on track today and will remain there until I’m seduced once again by the siren song of a four-star restaurant. Which doesn’t happen with any regularity, thank goodness.
So – pico de gallo. There’s some debate about the origins of the name, but it’s basically a fresh, uncooked salsa often served with Mexican dishes. It’s easy and delicious and has the added bonus of being extremely good for you, too. I don’t care much for cooked tomatoes, but I love them raw and this is one of my two favorite ways to eat them (I’ll get to the other way later in the summer when my own tomatoes ripen).
Note: Seed the jalapeños unless you like it really spicy.
Pico de Gallo
Pico de Gallo
makes 3 – 4 cups
2-3 medium sized fresh tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced
2 jalapeño peppers, finely diced
Juice of one lime
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all of the ingredients except the salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl; taste and season. Let it sit, covered, for an hour or so at room temperature, to allow the flavors to combine.
Can be served as a condiment, side dish or as a dip with good quality tortilla chips.
Printable version (requires Adobe Reader)
This weekend was a tad on the carby side for me. Not because of rich desserts or decadent cocktails. No, it was due entirely to this:
Sweet Corn
Yes, it is the extremely tasty evil Georgia sweet corn, and is entirely the fault of the guy at the farmer’s market who forced six ears on us Saturday morning, shortly before the guy at the meat market twisted our arms and made us buy 3 racks of baby back ribs. All of which we were then compelled to grill, then consume, later that evening, entirely against our will. And we won’t even go into the watermelon. *sobs*
It was a heartbreaking experience.
So we smoked a turkey breast and beef brisket on Sunday. And I felt the need to do something with the three ears of roasted corn we had leftover from our excess Saturday evening. Once I realized I had a bag of dried black beans in the pantry, this dish was on the menu. (You can, of course, make it with canned black beans.)
We ate it as a side with our brisket and turkey, but it would be marvelous served with good quality tortilla chips.
Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa
Black Bean Salsa
makes…a lot
4 cups (or two cans) black beans, drained and rinsed
3 ears roasted corn, kernels cut away (about 2 cups)
1 large tomato, chopped
1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 cup red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, torn
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cover (and refrigerate if desired) for at least 1 hour to allow flavors to develop. Bring to room temperature and stir before serving.
Printable version (requires Adobe Reader)
Back in August 2008, when this blog was in its infancy and I had just a fraction of the readers I enjoy today, I was lamenting the things I could easily find in Texas that were extremely scarce here in northeast Ohio, particularly in Podunk. At the top of the list were burgers from Dairy Queen (no burgers in Dairy Queen???), Dallas Cowboy paraphernalia, the Allman Brothers on the radio and this: good ol’ pimento cheese.
“I had clearly fallen into the Midwest version of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Civilization was but a distant memory,” I mourned.
I was ecstatic at the time because I’d found a recipe for it in Frank Stitt’s Southern Table, and the ingredients were easily found, even here in The Italian Food Capital of The Western Hemisphere. So I immediately made it. And the angels came forth and sang while I rejoiced, because it was surely the best pimento cheese I’d ever eaten.
I was so thrilled, as a matter of fact, that I immediately published the recipe as it was written in the cookbook, having found that it was already all over the internet, thus allying my fears of copyright infringement. (To this day, no one has come forth and asked me to remove it, so I’m guessing it’s all good.) But, like most recipes I make, it has been tweaked and fiddled with and while it’s more or less true to Miss Verba’s recipe, it is now something I am proud to call my own.
‘Cause it’s even better.
It makes a lot, and keeps well in the refrigerator, but I’m willing to bet you’ll never find out it’s shelf life – this stuff goes quickly. It is absolutely yummy on crackers, as you see here, and stuffed into celery and cherry tomatoes. And for my Southern readers, it makes one mean sammich.
Jan’s Pimento Cheese
serves Beloved during a Cowboy game
3 large red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped into a small dice
1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup Miracle Whip salad dressing
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce, or other hot sauce
In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, Miracle Whip, sugar, pepper and hot sauce, mixing well. Stir in the cheddar cheese until well combined, then gently fold in the chopped bell peppers.
Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving, unless your husband snatches the bowl out from under your nose as soon as you’ve finished mixing it; then you let him have it, throw a box of crackers at him and get out of his way.
So, here I sit in the hotel in French Lick, Indiana for the last time. Checkout is at 1 p.m. Beloved is coming to get me and I’ll join him at the client site for the remainder of the working day, then we are driving to Louisville, Kentucky for the night. Tomorrow, we drive home.
This is my last chance at room service, which I am convinced is the greatest invention in the history of all mankind. If I didn’t think the company bookkeeper would kill me, I’d order one of everything.
Oh, wait – I am the company bookkeeper.
Well.
Anyhoo, I can’t go a whole week without boring you all to tears with a new recipe, so here’s this weeks: Texas Caviar. Popularized by Helen Corbitt, the famed 1950s food consultant and cookbook author who directed food service at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, it isn’t really caviar, of course, it’s really more of a salsa. And my, oh my – is it tasty. Even if you’re not a fan of black-eyed peas – silly you! – you’ll like this. It’s absolutely marvelous with good, crisp tortilla chips.
Texas Caviar
serves me and Beloved if you’re not quick
2 cans black-eyed peas
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small can of chopped green chiles
dash – or two – of your favorite hot sauce
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons minced celery
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro, minced
2 plum tomatoes, diced
Drain peas, rinse with cold water and drain again.
Combine olive oil, chiles, hot sauce, onion, celery, vinegar, salt and pepper, and mix well. Pour over peas and stir gently. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight, if possible.
At serving time, add the green onions, chopped tomatoes and cilantro, and stir gently to mix. Serve with tortilla chips.