Well, I’m back - at least for another year. It has been a long time since I have been out here blogging or keeping up with everyone’s captivating work. I apologize to my blogging buds and I promise to do better.

I haven’t any stories of woe or melancholy to attempt to sugarcoat why I haven’t been here. It is really pretty simple: blogging is hard work! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Many kudos to those you who blog regularly. For me, keeping up with my blog became more like work than a hobby. Maybe some of you can relate. I write this with the grand assumption that someone is actually still out there reading. Aren’t I a presumptuous tool? Well, I have to do better. I do cook, all the time, so I just have to keep motivated to share some of the good stuff. Maybe some of the bad stuff as well.

But, really though, I missed this. A LOT! I love to cook and I love reading what everyone else is doing. So here I am, again, at least for another year to bring you what I got and to consume what ya’ll got. Fair enough?

As most of us across the country know, this has been a wicked, wicked, cold and overly wet winter. Cold weather is, for me, a great time for cooking. I love to braise, make stock, soups, and of course, nothing beats a bowl of chili when the wind is blowing, snow is drifting about, and the temperature is dipping.

Chili is one of those things that is quite personal as well as regional. Some people like their chili with ground meat and beans, some like just beans, some with meat - not ground - and no beans, and on and on… You get the idea; its personal. Hell, some folks in a certain region put chili over pasta! Sorry, I draw the line there. No offense.

The wife found a recipe in one of our food rags for black bean chili with sweet potato. I thought, hmm, that sounds delicious. I didn’t actually read the recipe. I just kinda threw it together. This was a very enjoyable pot of chili. I’ll need to keep the sweet potato out until the last 30 minutes or so next time so that they keep their texture and don’t become squishy. They actually added some serious body to the chili along with their natural sweetness countering the chipotle. I actually think I may add a diced sweet potato to my next pot of regular chili for the body and sweetness alone.

I chose lamb for this pot as opposed to beef because, well since they were, it was… I just put lamb in it. I found some lamb shoulder chops at Whole Paychex and snatched up a pound of ground lamb. We really like the two textures of the ground and the not-ground. Can someone help me out here? What do we call not-gound meat?

Those beans you see above are the wonderfully delicious Rancho Gordo beans. Those are the appropriately named snow caps. They, as are all the RG beans, in a word, perfect!

This pot was a success. I served it up with some nice skillet jalapeno cheddar cornbread. It still needs some tweaking for next time. And next time will probably be next week, as soon as my next batch of RG beans arrives.

Recipe after the jump…

The fact is that I couldn’t verify that this was actual Mexican chocolate. The article from the August 2010 Bon Appetit suggested that it was the combination of chocolate and cinnamon yielding the Mexican flavor. Okay. If they say so. It tasted good no matter what it’s called. The creamy layer of orange scented meringue atop the creamy homemade chocolate ice cream, all settled on a chocolate cinnamon brownie was as euphoric as an obscure reference to something extremely euphoric of which I currently cannot think. Every mouthful was just decadently luscious.

When I was a youngin’, I always had some crazy affinity for ice cream cake. I think because ice cream cake was had so infrequently that whenever it made an appearance, I too had to make an appearance. Not much has changed there. I still remember when we got our first Carvel. It wasn’t in our neighborhood, but it was close enough. We really didn’t have much from there very often, but we got to ride by it occasionally. And I knew what was in there! I would wake from a deep on-the-road-home-from-grandma’s sleep as we approached the storefront from the not-so-silly-then happy feelings. Just given the opportunity, I was going to stick my spoon into something!

This treat takes textures to another level. I mean there was really a whole lot going on, but when you work from top to bottom with your utensil, ultimately all of the flavors worked together. So putting the prep time in paid off. I love when that happens.

There was the issue of the brownie. My first thought after reading the recipe was that the brownie was going to be rock hard. It wasn’t really too bad. I undercooked the brownie just a bit in an effort to prevent rockafication. It was more hard to cut than to eat. Eating it was chewy in a delicious way. Cutting through it took some skill and agility - at one point I almost wore a slice. I think I may have been deducted a couple of cool points, but I did mange to recover.

Head on over here for the recipe and if you make it, I want to know.

Behold! Creamy pasta with no cream and plenty of flavor. I know that I am hardly the first to come up with something like this; I am not that boneheaded, but man was I sure proud when I took the first bite of this dish. I mean it. ‘Course, I was hungry, too.

You know how you come up with that brilliant (well you think it is) idea for a meal? You put all the players in place, think all the right thoughts, cook until your neighbors nostrils flair, plate the concept so sportingly that you have secret thoughts of wishing Thomas Keller were sitting in wait for your plate. Then you take the first bite of your dish and find it tastes like what a subway station stairwell smells like in hot-ass August! Well, this was not that dish. Don’t get me wrong, this is not complicated or sophisticated at all; although this would prrobably be the overall winning dish on this year’s sorry Hell’s Kitchen. It just worked out really nicely from concept to forkful finale.

None of y’all needs me to tell you about the eat-whatever-is-in-the-fridge day. This was one of those days. A little of this, a bit of that…boom! Dinner. There is no recipe, per se, for this dish. What transpired was, me grabbing some leeks, asparagus, a bell pepper, portobellos, chicken breast, some skrimps, and grilling them. Then I stirred together some garlic confit, Parmigiano-Reggiano, parsley, S&P, and 2% Greek yogurt. While tossing the whole wheat pasta and vegg, I added a handful (read: the bottom of the frozen bag) of green peas along with just enough pasta water to create the creamy consistency. Surprise, surprise; tasty, healthy, creamy, quick, and easy.

We can discuss the garlic confit next time I make it. If you don’t know, it’s from Keller, and it’s good!

I could eat grilled asparagus spritzed with lemon forever!

That’s a mouthful isn’t it? And I had several. That serving glass used to be my wine glass. There is a reason that I no longer use that glass - it holds way to much of a good thing. I mean, it is a very healthy indulgence; it has blueberries, which are high in antioxidants and other healthy stuff, and it has, um…um…eggs and um…some lemon and some orange. See, healthy! Never mind about the butter, sugar, cream, cheese, and deliciousness. This is a dessert for crying out loud!

Oh yeah, it also has cookies. But they’re just for texture!

I get these afternoon cravings for Oreos. I don’t know what it is, but it usually is Reese cups, but now, Oreos. These cookies, just a few, put that craving to rest. With the shortbread texture and that hint of orange, I can go on like a five year old with a cup of red Kool-Aid.

Usually the wife is the baker, but this was a team effort. I will admit, there are some steps to this recipe that take some time, but it is well worth it.

Recipe after the jump…

Pronounced /por’ket:a/ (or sometimes “porketta"). If you are a “POP", that would be a “pal of pork” then porchetta is just plain delicious! Well, please allow me to write freely here for a minute. This post, and any and all subsequent, were surely not to make it here. I had made the decision. I was shutting the kitchen (the virtual one) down. One day I logged on to my site and I got an database error. For no apparent reason. This site was up and running just the night before. So I troubleshot. Then I was overcome with frustration because the protections put in place to avert hacking kept locking me out via my IP every time I attempted to fix the issue. Oh, you don’t know how I wanted to crawl through the 22 inch monitor and do things to the hosting support person that would involve sharp objects, projectiles, and a small amount (not greedy) of C4. After much consideration, I had decided that I was packing it in. Then, just for shits and giggles, I log to my site. It comes up! WTF? So… I think I’ll keep the site at least until my hosting runs out and then I will soul search to see if I want to keep it going. I really do enjoy sharing my cooking experiences with you. In the meantime, I’ll share my porchetta with you all, how’s that?

It has been so difficult to get to posting the past couple of weeks, but I really wanted to get this post out. If you like carrot cake, you’re gonna love this one. It is a classic carrot cake with a bit of a twist - the addition of pistachios in the cake and pineapple in the traditional cream cheese frosting. One of the main concerns about carrot cake is moistness. I like my carrot cake moist, like a really good red velvet cake, but at the same time I like the cake to have that rustic texture. This recipe does not disappoint.

I will have to warn you, a slice of this cake can will ruin progress on your fitness program, but it is sooooooo worth it!

Recipe after the jump.

Right…so I am sitting in my den watching a program and I hear my dog barking like crazy at the crazy banging on the front door. The wife answers and some guy in a poncho, who has backed away from the door about 15 feet at this point, begins some monologue. I can’t hear him too well because I have manned the battle station at the sofa table grasping the Smith and Wesson .38. Whatever he was saying, Beck didn’t like it because she turns to me and says, “honey, he wants to talk to you.” Nicely played dear.

So I go outside into the rain to see what this joker wants. I immediately notice I can’t see his right hand, so I extend mine to shake. Ok…this follows:

Poncho dude: (had been rambling on) So yeah I’ve been incarcerated.
Me: OK

Poncho dude: It was for crack cocaine. Not for sex offense. I couldn’t live next door to you if it was a sex offense.
Me: (trying to follow) OK and you don’t live…what can I do for you.

Poncho dude: Well I’m out now. (obviously) And I am trying to feed my family. I work at the local Publix and I can’t take no donations, can’t do that.
Me: OK (as if I was gonna offer one)

Poncho dude: So I’m in this program…
Me: …and what does your program have you doing?

Poncho dude: y’know just goin’ door to door, meeting people and talking to them.
Me: In the rain? At dinner time?

Poncho dude: It’s for the program.
Me: OK

Poncho dude: I’m an African American (as if I can’t see that) and I usually don’t get help from any African Americans.
Me: (WTF?) I can see that you are. I’m one too, and what kind of help?

Poncho dude: y’know for my program
Me: (WTF!!!!) the program? So how would you have me help you?

Poncho dude: (here is comes) I get points…
Me: Points?

Poncho dude: Yeah, from (wait for it) selling magazines…
Me: (moving to my front door) I already have all subscriptions I need.

Poncho dude: But you’d be helping me…
Me: (walking through front door) I don’t need anymore magazines.

Poncho dude: But don’t you want to help!?
Me: Don’t want what you’re selling.

Poncho dude: But what about God? Do you believe in God?
Me: (slams door!)

Recipe after the jump…

Pan Roasted Duck Breast with Blackberry Sauce
Adapted from Bon Appetit

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
2 cartons fresh blackberries
1 1/4 cups canned beef broth
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons Cognac or brandy
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
4 5 to 6 ounce duck breast halves with skin

METHOD:

1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sugar; stir until sugar dissolves and mixture turns deep amber color, about 5 minutes. Add wine, orange juice and vinegar (mixture will bubble vigorously) and bring to boil, stirring to dissolve caramel. Add 1 1/2 cartons berries and both broths and boil until sauce thickens and is reduced to about 1 cup, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Strain sauce through sieve into heavy small saucepan, pressing on berries with back of spoon. Mix in Cognac and maple syrup. Set sauce aside. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Trim any excess fat from duck breasts. Cut three 4 inch long by 1/16 inch deep lengthwise slits in skin (not meat) of duck. Season duck with salt and pepper. Heat heavy large ovenproof skillet over high heat until hot. Add duck, skin side down, and sear until brown, about 5 minutes. Turn over; cook 3 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven; continue cooking to desired doneness, about 3 minutes for medium.

3. Meanwhile, bring sauce to simmer over low heat. Add remaining 1 tablespoon butter and whisk just until melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Spoon sauce onto plates. Slice duck and place atop sauce. Garnish with additional berries.

Printable version can be found here.

Whilst pondering what to do with leftover stuffing from wonton for wonton soup; we made like 50 dumplings. I bounce over to Eating Club Vancouver to find just what I was craving - meerkat brains! I shouldn’t kid. I am sure that some of you find the cute meerkat cute. But the point is, that stuffed savoy cabbage looks like brains. And that drizzle of sesame oil in the picture isn’t helping matters any either. I am a huge fan of Asian inspired cuisine and I will experiment at home whenever I can. I had to attempt one of my absolute favorites, wonton soup. So I prepared a rich stock from country pork ribs, aromatics, dark chicken meat, and few other things. Then I composed a filling of ground pork, minced shrimp, scallion, and spices, for the store-bought pasta squares. We then filled a little over 50 dumplings before my pinkies fell off and we had to stop. I used some for the soup and froze the rest. …the dumplings not the pinkies. While this may be an inspiring blog entry for an excellent bowl of homemade wonton soup, alas it isn’t to be, which is apparent by the lead photo. Don’t misunderstand, the soup came out okay, but just okay. Gotta tweak the stock a little bit more and skip the soy in it next time.

Creating these is really easy if not a bit tedious. I used two small heads of cabbage. I blanched the heads by just bringing them to a boil, turning off the heat, and covering them for about a minute until the leaves are tender and pliable. Then they get stuffed and rolled like burritos. Since this is a steaming application, I used my bamboo steamer, lining the bottoms of the steaming chambers with parchment so as to not leave any funky residue. Any steamer will work just as well. Cool thing about these pods is that we freeze the leftovers and by placing them in a bowl with a small about of water, they nuke nicely from a frozen state for lunch or anytime. So come on and stick a fork in a meerkat brain!

Recipe after the jump.

Honestly, I had never heard of this dish until I saw it on Alton Brown’s show Good Eats. I imagine had I frequented French restaurants I would have seen it on menus. From what I gather, it is a popular French dish. But I got turned off to French restaurants when I was in my twenties because of the portion size of the dishes. So they just aren’t in my restaurant frequenting rotation. I really don’t have anything against french cuisine; I am just a glutton.

So this is the first time making these peppercorn crusted beauties. The longest part of the entire prep was oven roasting the potatoes. These steaks are pan flash fried, rested, then it was the cognac (watch your eyebrows!) cream sauce that most certainly sealed the deal for me. I couldn’t get a picture of me igniting the cognac in the pan before the flame went out; just not fast enough.

While I watched Mr. Brown prepare his steak au poivre, I remember thinking how I love a generous sprinkling of black pepper on my steak, probably more than the next person. And while I am no stranger to cracked peppercorns pressed into proteins, but encrusting a whole plate of cracked peppercorns onto both sides of an 8 ounce steak looked a lot like overkill. It’s not. Not even close. I used red, a few white, and black peppercorns and I got a really nice balance of pepper taste and texture.

Naturally, as with any dish, there are multiple variations. Some use shallots, some Dijon mustard, some use brandy, and some use stock. Anthony Bourdain’s recipe calls for dark veal stock instead of cream. This means nothing more to me than another way to get the tasty job done.

Recipe after the jump…