The Cooking Diva's Kitchen

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Tapenade

Tapenade is an olive spread, I use it all the time on bread, or in salads to give the olive flavor with out the big pieces of olive, I use it to top fish or chicken (actually why I made it today). It is a nice flavorful spread that gives a lot of punch. If you don't like olives you will not like this spread but if you are normal and like olives ;o) then you will love it.

Ok...so dump some olives, a clove or 2 of garlic (made into a paste) half a lemons worth of juice (or a splash from a bottle) about 2 teaspoons of capers (I am not the biggest caper fan so I think less is more here) a few anchovies WHAT.. HEY did she just say ANCHOVIES???? Is she out of her freaking mind I mean really who the heck eats anchovies?!?!?!?!? Yes people anchovies, and if you leave out this step I will know and I will haunt you.. anchovies do not make your food "fishy" you know what makes Worcestershire sauce so yummy on just about anything??? YEP anchovies! They are great in many sauces, they add so much flavor to your dishes and leaving them out would be a mistake.. but do what you will... OK so where was I... oh yes, olives, garlic, lemon juice, capers, anchovies, and basil to a food processor and let her rip... Oh and I added more calamata olives to this after taking the picture so I had about a half a jar of olives added to what you see here.

Give it a whirl and there you have it fast and fabulous!
Much like this post! ;o)

Oven dried tomatoes

Today we made a batch of oven dried tomatoes... they are the less expensive version of "sun dried tomatoes" You can use them in any recipe that calls for sun dried at a fraction of the cost... so here is what you do....

Have you cutest sous chef help you out by taking all the seeds and inners out of the tomatoes. Today we used grape tomatoes, I usually use roma but this is all I had on hand today so it is what I used... Ok now a note here you are drying them so you want them as dry as you can get them before you start.... don't go crazy just take the juice and seeds out of the middle...

So they look like this (below)

Season them up with a little garlic paste (see earlier post about garlic paste) salt, pepper...

And some olive oil

Give them a gentle toss

Then put them on a cookie sheet (or as we used here a cast iron pan... all my cookie sheets were dirty from making cookies and I really didn't want to wash them! :o)

See they are looking yummy already! Heat your oven to 250-275 and pop them in.

This is them half way through the cooking time... this is when I would take them out if I were using them in a sauce and I wanted the flavor of roasted tomatoes but not the chewy texture of dried tomatoes.. but alas today I want dried so we let them cook...

and cook... and forgot they were in there so a few of them burnt but.. I got enough for what I needed them for tonight.. I lost about 12 of them :o( but hey it happens. You want them dry and chewy and not crispy, think raisin not potato chip! ;o)

You can toss these in a salad, in just about any dip, the possibilities are endless! Now at this point if you cover them in olive oil they will stay in your fridge for about forever or you can baggie them dry and freeze them and they will stay forever.. I usually just bag them I like them better that way.

Now a note here.. I am a roasted garlic girl... I could eat the stuff alone (ok not quite, but almost) but if we had added roasted garlic to this we would have had burnt garlic... we needed the garlic to roast along with the tomatoes to flavor them.

Smashin' garlic into mush! YUM?!?

This is going with my roasted tomatoes post (hence the tomato juice all over the cutting board) I know this sounds simple but I wanted to post it anyway... I usually buy my garlic, roast the whole 3 lbs and section it out to freeze... there are very few times where I don't substitute raw garlic for the roasted. But when I need to use raw I use it in paste form or thin slices...I don't mean to insult anyone here but it took me a few times to get my garlic into paste so I am putting this out there for all of you that are like me and need a little help in the oh so obvious things! LOL

Alrighty then...
so you start with a smack to peel (my garlic was super easy to peel today so I just pulled the paper off first but if you give the clove a good smacking it will come right out of it's paper).

Then you smack that sucka again to get it nice and flat!!!

I chop it a little, most people say they just smash but it takes too long for me so I chop really fast then I add some coarse salt. For those of you that have read this blog you know I am a pincher and have nothing against you shakers... that being said, here coarse salt would be better... if you don't have it then I would use a tiny pinch of sugar (you won't even notice in the end and it is coarse enough to do the job) mixed with the table salt.

Use the flat part of your knife, press it against the garlic and pull the knife back toward you all the while applying pressure to the part of your knife that is pressing on the garlic you only have to do this a few time and it turns into... this less than pretty glob of garlic goodness. When you use it like this you don't end up having bites of sharp garlic in what ever you are making with it.

Now doesn't that look good?!? OK so it looks really nasty but I promise the 45 sec it takes to do this is worth it. I am sure you could do a big ol batch in a food processor if you wanted to...I mean if you like the raw garlic taste over the roasted (which would be just plain weird! ;o)) then you could freeze it at this stage for later use.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Brisket in the crock pot

It took me forever to dare to cook a brisket. They always looked so intimidating in the store. Sitting there almost screaming "It takes a man and a grill to conquer me!" But one day I just picked one up and figured it was big enough to cut into a few pieces and try it different ways and if I screwed it up there was always PB&J. That is, by the way, how I learn to cook most things I always have a back up just in case it is a disaster and it is usually PB&J! And on more than one occasion I have had to use my back up!

So this is the way that we like it best...

I start with a rub of brown sugar, granulated garlic, salt, pepper and New Mexican chili powder.(see note at bottom) I like there to be a little spicy/smoky/sweet note to mine. I think the brown sugar helps in the crock pot because you almost, kind of "carmelize" meat and that is near impossible with crock pot cooking unless you sear your mead before hand (which I do to just about any meat). But the brisket is so big that I would just rather not sear it first.

First things first if you are going to cook this in the crock pot you need to do it in two batches. It is too big to cook the whole thing at once.

Ok so now that you have done that you need to season it up...How much do I use???? A lot! This is a big ol' piece of meat and you need to really season it up. This is about 1/2 cup brown sugar and same with the chili powder ( if you are using regular chili powder I would suggest you only use a few tablespoons and maybe a little cumin)

And about 2 tablespoons of so of granulated garlic

Mix it up......

And rub that piece of meat like it is no body's business! You want to get that rub in all the little creases.Then just throw that bad boy in the crock pot and let it cook for the whole day on low. I have to apologize for no end result picture of this but my husband borrowed my camera this day I forgot I didn't have an end result until just now!

This freezes well too, I usually shred mine up add a little of the juice (who am I kidding, it is fat) and seal it in a freezer bag. The left over makes great sandwiches or Texas chili.

So lets say you want to have a BBQ and you want to impress everyone with your "skills"
throw this bad boy in the crock pot and let it cook, then before your guest come over (like 10 min before) throw it on a med hot grill and let it get that BBQ char we all love and no one ever has to know they just had the easiest BBQ you have ever made! The will see brisket and (unless you have left your dirty crock pot sitting out) they will think you got up early and slaved away all day so this ton of meat would be cooked to perfection just for them! Lovely!

***Note about New Mexico Chili Powder*** Being married an Albuquerque man, this is something I have used my entire adult life, it is a staple in New Mexico and we just love the flavor. While you can buy this in "hot" if you get the "mild" this is loaded with flavor but not heat. It IS NOT the same as your "chili powder" you find in your spice jar, trust me! I had a less that great relationship with my mother in law for a little while and refused to have her send me the good stuff so one day I thought chili powder is chili powder these New Mexicans and just full of themselves, so I bought a bottle and made "New Mexican Red" ( I will post on here one day) and it was so inedible it wasn't even funny, needless to say I made up with my mother in law and she supplies me with it regularly! The best way I can describe it is... if a recipe calls for a cup of green bell pepper you wouldn't substitute a cup of black pepper, it isn't the same thing and you would end up with a nasty end result. For those of you that don't have my kind of "connections" LOL here is a link where you can buy New Mexican Chili powder. . www.madeinnewmexico.com/hatchchilepowder.html

Monday, October 19, 2009

Step 3

I like to group mine into grocery store categories. Then I add up the duplicates and take anything I already have in the pantry off. I always stick my menu on the fridge this helps me remember what all I have the fixens for and I don't have to hear "what's for dinner?" they just check the fridge.

MEATS

Beef tips (2 meals)

Pork tenderloin

Chicken breast (2 meals)

Flank steak (for NM red)

PRODUCE

Potatoes

Onions 2 bags

Basil

Garlic 3 heads

Scallions

Parsley

DELI & DAIRY

½ lb prosciutto (parma)

½ lb provolone

Heavy cream

Eggs

Cheddar cheese

BREADS

Ciabatta

Corn tortillas

CANNED & DRY GOODS

Rice

Teriyaki sauce

Angel hair

Soy sauce

Panko

Kidney beans (dry)

FROZEN

Frozen peas

Nice and painless!

Step 2

Copy and past the ingredient list from the database.

Chicken Enchiladas

**New Mexican red**

Chicken breast

Corn tortillas

Cheddar cheese

Onions

Flank steak (for NM red)

Beef stock (freezer)

Texas Chili

**red gravy, NM chili powder**

Kidney beans (dry)

Onion

Beef tips

Garlic Chicken and Pasta

**parm, white wine**

Chicken breast

2 heads garlic

Angel hair

Panko

Parsley

Chicken stock (from freezer)

Asian Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin

Garlic