I like casseroles. I’m a sucker for comfort food, and having all my meat and veggies and grain mixed together in a tasty sauce will do it for me any day.
One of the big problems with casserole recipes is they tend to come from that 1950′s convenience school of cooking. Lots of condensed soup, soup mixes, flavoring packets, salad dressings, etc. I don’t want to have to use a whole brick of cream cheese. I want it to be easy but I don’t want to make it out of factory food and I don’t want it to be too heavy on the fat or salt.
So I was really excited when I found this recipe for a Chicken and Brown Rice casserole for the slow cooker. It fits all my requirements. It has no food shortcuts, but it’s not time consuming. Perfect, right? The trick to the recipe is that instead of a condensed soup, she starts off with a base of milk, chicken broth and flour. You get that creamy consistency without all the blech.
I made it yesterday. I made a couple changes. We’re not mushroom people, so I didn’t include them. And I realized at the last minute that I had only whole milk in the refrigerator. (At this point I thought the recipe might be cursed. I was going to make it last week, only to realize I didn’t have enough chicken broth and rice.) I used my hot Spanish paprika because I don’t keep regular around the house. I also cut the chicken into bite sized strips instead of leaving the whole breasts on top.
The procedure of the recipe goes like this: you heat some milk and broth, whisk the rest of the milk and flour, then combine them; you put your rice and seasonings (onion powder, pepper, paprika) in the pot. You add a chopped onion. Then you blend your milk mixture after it’s cooled a bit. The chicken goes on top. You cook 8 hours on low or 4 on high.
I don’t have a picture because, well, it wasn’t very picture worthy.
But I did have a taste. And it didn’t turn out well. The rice was clumpy and gluey. There was a lack of flavor. And my slow cooker had a crust all around the sides. (The recipe says to coat with cooking spray, but then it tells you to mix things together… so I found that rather pointless.)
So now I have to decide whether to ditch this recipe or fix it.
I want to fix it. I like the idea. We need more brown rice in our life. PLUS the Bug eats it. He eats it! He eats grown-up food!!
But first I have to identify the problem. I have a few potential suspects:
- The whole milk. The recipe says 2% or less. I don’t know enough about making this kind of base to know if my whole milk is responsible for the consistency, but it’s certainly possible.
- Not sure I mixed my milk/flour mixture well enough. It was still rather clumpy when I put it in the pot. I should’ve used a bigger bowl.
- It could be something about the recipe itself. I definitely want to adjust the seasonings to give it some bite because it was on the bland side.
The seasoning is an obvious fix, though I’m not sure what to add. When I eat the casserole, I cover it liberally with my favorite Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning, which–as far as I’m concerned–fixes anything. But that may be too spicy for the Bug.
As for the rest, this is where I am going to all of you for help. I don’t want to make it again just to test the milk and still have a fail. What ideas do you have about what went wrong? How can we save this and make a good idea into a good recipe??
Cross-posted with Don’t Mind the Mess.
There are lots of things that are quintessentially Boston. The Freedom Trail. Harvard Square. Southie. But on Sunday I had a brunch that was about as Boston as you can get.
Here’s what I saw when I stepped out of my car.
That would be Fenway. (I didn’t have to tell you that, right?)
Sitting down to an Irish Breakfast at a pub right across the street from Fenway made me feel about as Bostonian as I can get.
This was another fabulous outing with the Boston Brunchers, this time our destination was the Lansdowne Pub. This isn’t one of those tiny Irish pubs where everyone is jammed close together. This place has plenty of room and plenty of ambience.
My blurry phone pics obviously don’t do it justice. But you can tell it’s a great place to party after a Red Sox game. What you may not have known is that it’s a great place for a weekend brunch. Who would’ve thought?
The Lansdowne opens at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday so you can pre-game there. Or stop in before you hit Newbury Street.
Pubs can be great fun. And they’re usually reliable for great drinks. The question for many of us is, how’s the food?
I’m pleased to answer that it is spectacular.
Our group tried several different breakfast items. The Pancakes with Strawberries and Bailey’s Whipped Cream made an appearance. There were several diehard fans of an Irish Breakfast. As for me, I had a tough time making up my mind. I usually prefer savory brunch dishes, but lately I’ve had a bit of a sweet tooth. I gave serious consideration to the Stuffed French Toast with chocolate and bananas. But in the end I went savory and chose the Lansdowne Pie.
Once again, my terrible camera photo does NOT do it justice. The pie had a nice crust and then was layered like I’ve never seen. Eggs, potatoes, Irish ham, cheese, spinach and onions. On the top was a tasty cheesy crust. It didn’t fall apart when I took a bite, it was one well-built pie.
I often order omelets because I love eggs with other tasty stuff. But this pie was far more satisfying than an omelet. Something about baking all these things together had it moist and creamy and the flavors all blending together. It was creamier and more delectable than a quiche, even if it was a kind of similar idea. The egg held everything together and tasted great without dominating the dish.
It came with a good size order of home fries, which are one of those sides that either shine or fail miserably. Mine had the perfect amount of onions and peppers with them so I just dabbed them in a teensy bit of ketchup instead of having to smother them to make up for lackluster taste.
Like any good brunch there were a variety of drink specials. They had your trusty mimosa and Bloody Mary. But the Brunchers ordered lots of their coffee drinks, with names like Liquid Caramel Coffee and Muddy River. I, of course, could not imbibe and looked on with envy. Everyone seemed VERY pleased with their drinks.
I would be more than happy to return. In fact, I’d kind of like to do a Lansdowne Pub brunch and a Fenway tour, something I still haven’t done. (In the winter, tours run on the hour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) Kenmore Station on the Green B, C and D lines is just a couple blocks away. And in the morning I found parking easy to come by.
I don’t know that this makes me Boston Irish, but I sure did feel like it for a little while.
Thanks to the Boston Brunchers and to Lansdowne Pub for providing our group with a complimentary brunch item of our choice. A review was not required, all opinions are my own.
You have a lot of options when it comes to garlic. You can buy it jarred, pre-minced or pre-chopped or whatever. You can buy it already in a paste. You can buy yourself a head of garlic and then mince it yourself. I suspect most of us go the traditional route and use fresh garlic and a garlic press.
If your choice is between pre-processed garlic and fresh, ALWAYS go fresh. I’ve done both and the taste of fresh garlic is far and beyond better.
As for how to prep your fresh garlic, it can be a question of time management. After I took my knife class I put away my garlic press and started mincing my garlic with my knife, just like I chopped EVERYTHING.
But these days, when I’m in a pinch, I have started pulling out the garlic press again.
Why do I take the press over mincing by hand? Well, if I’ve been chopping and chopping already it can get old. Or maybe I don’t want another dish to stick stuff in. (You generally add garlic at a different point in the recipe than your other ingredients.) Or maybe I forgot to chop my garlic and I figure it’ll be faster just to stick it in the press.
Also, one thing I hate about chopping garlic: it sticks to the knife. It seems to slow the process down.
But I’m trying to get over it. Because the god of simple cooking, Mark Bittman, says to chop your garlic. More specifically he says CHOP, not MINCE. Which is a lot less knife work. (If you have picky eaters in your house you may want to chop a little more finely, but I like the basic idea.) (He also says use an immersion blender for vinaigrette which strikes me as freaking brilliant.)
So where do you stand? Do you use a garlic press? Do you use pre-minced garlic? Do you chop it yourself?
One thing you should never ever buy again: pancake mix.
Seriously.
Pancake mix just gives you the dry ingredients to make pancakes, you generally need to add oil, eggs, milk, etc.
So why is it so unnecessary? Let’s consider one of my easy pancake recipes. Here’s what’s in the dry ingredients:
Flour, baking powder, salt, sugar.
The end.
Then there’s my buttermilk pancakes, banana pancakes… same list, except sometimes there’s baking soda.
Even my most difficult and time-consuming recipe (which is also the yummiest), Whole Wheat Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes adds just a couple extra dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, wheat germ, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Let’s be honest: you have most of these things already. (Okay, maybe not the wheat germ, but like I said that’s my super complicated recipe and I buy wheat germ special just for it.) Why would you spend money when it’s only going to take you a minute to put these ingredients together?
You don’t even have to sift! Just use a whisk to stir instead and that’ll get everything aerated.
And… well, in my experience, pancakes mixed by hand just TASTE better.
Do I even need to say that the same is true of waffles??
Take it from me, my friends. I will save time however I can, but it’s SO worth it to save some cash and take a couple extra seconds to mix those dry ingredients yourself.
I have a lot of cookbooks I need to start working my way through. One of them was a gift from Harvard Common Press, and it’s right up my alley right now:
Winter is perfect for the slow cooker. And since I’m usually pretty exhausted by the time the evening rolls around, lately I prefer getting a start on dinner earlier in the day.
I’ve already made the Creamy White Chicken Chili from this book and got good reviews from my husband. This time I was looking for something simple but a little spicy and settled on Chile Relleno Casserole. It didn’t take a lot of ingredients or time, and I’m a fan of Mexican food.
The biggest time commitment for the casserole was the chiles themselves. The recipe called for a few cans of whole roasted green chiles or 8 poblano peppers. I’ve had terrible luck finding canned green chiles lately (I miss Texas!) so I opted for the fresh peppers instead.
Fear not, poblanos are quite mild. (If you’re ever worried about how spicy a chile is going to be, consult the pepper scale. Google “scoville scale” and you’ll be all set.) Poblanos come in at about the same as Anaheim chiles, also quite mild. Both are about half as hot as a Jalapeno. (And jalapenos aren’t all that hot if you get the seeds out.) The one thing you MUST worry about with chiles, even mild ones, is the oil in the pepper that gets on your hands. I recommend a pair of kitchen gloves that fit your hands tightly for all chile cutting and handling.
I was foolish enough to proceed without kitchen gloves. Soap and water only does so much. If you find yourself in that position, friends recommended acid (lemon juice, orange juice) or letting your hands soak in milk.
Poblano peppers are bigger than many chiles I’ve used before.
I used the same method I do with my bell peppers: cut off the top and the bottom, then you can get the seeds and membranes out from the middle. Make sure you’re thorough! A few spare seeds will make that dish hot hot hot!
The poblanos were about half and half. Some were just lovely and easy to work with like this one:
Isn’t that lovely with all the seeds still together? Just an easy slice and I’m all done.
However, the other half of my peppers were more like this:
Seeds spilling out, membranes not so nice to cut. This when you have to be extra careful to get all the seeds off your pepper and your cutting board. When I do my mise en place (look at me all fancy) I keep a bowl for cast-offs, which makes it easy to just swipe everything off my cutting board in one go. Then you can dump out the bowl at the end.
The recipe called for the peppers to be cut into one-inch strips. When all was said and done I had a lot of nicely cut peppers.
To make the casserole you layer the peppers with cheese in your crock pot. I decided that it wouldn’t be too easy to eat such long strips so I ended up cutting them all in half before I put them in the cooker. Was definitely more casserole-friendly.
I’ve never actually made chile rellenos before. I do enjoy anything stuffed with cheese and I’ve eaten some before. I trusted my recipe, which seemed like a winner with lots of cheese, eggs and cream. (I substituted half & half. I hardly ever cook with real cream.) After layering the chile and cheese, the egg mixture was poured over the top and before the cooker turned on it looked like so:
I was curious to see what it would end up looking like. This was the final result a few hours later:
And this was the point where I started to wonder a little bit.
It turns out there are TWO kinds of chile rellenos. The ones stuffed with cheese, egg and cream and the ones stuffed with cheese, meat, tomatoes, etc. Turning the former kind into a casserole left me with… well… a pepper frittata.
Here it is, in a bowl:
Yup, pretty frittata-esque, right?
It’s not that it was bad, but it wasn’t what I expected. And it definitely could have used some more kick.
Here’s the recipe:
Chile Relleno Casserole
Adapted from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Family Favorites
Two 7-oz cans roasted whole green chiles, drained and rinsed, or 8 large fresh poblano chiles, stems, seeds, and membranes removed
2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 c. shredded jack cheese
8 large eggs, beaten
1 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. half & half
Salsa and sour cream for serving
Cut peppers into 1-inch-thick strips, then cut in half lengthwise. Line your slow-cooker with peppers, then cover with cheese. Continue to layer until there are 3 layers of peppers and cheese.
Mix eggs, flour, salt and half & half with whisk until well-mixed. Pour over layers.
Cover and cook on low 5 hours.
So I wouldn’t call it a failure, but I realized that while I enjoy the cheese-stuffed chiles, when it comes to a casserole I think the kind stuffed with a variety of fillings may be a better option. Now I’m interested in re-making a new slow-cooker chile relleno casserole where the layers aren’t just peppers and cheese.
I’m thinking peppers, cheese, tomatoes, a little ground meat… maybe beans? The plus side of these changes would mean you weren’t getting quite so much cheese and eggs, so it should be a healthier dish. (This is a bit on the rich side as a casserole.) Plus I think layering chiles instead of chips or tortillas as so many Mexican casseroles do is a healthier and tastier idea.
What do you think? How do you like your chile rellenos? Shall we embark on a new chile relleno casserole??
And don’t forget, the jury’s still out on Pre-Chopped Frozen Herbs. Do you think they’re worth it?
There are two features I’ll be running regularly on the blog.
Cutting Corners will highlight the little tricks that are worth the time they save. (For example, I often use pre-grated parmesan. Gasp!)
Worth the Time will focus on those things that are definitely worth the extra time and effort. (There are some recipes where I’m definitely buying a wedge of parmesan, no question.)
But for those that seem to fall in the middle we’ll have a poll and decide: is it worth the time or should we cut corners?
Today’s subject is the new pre-chopped herbs you may have seen in the freezer section of the grocery store.
Are fresh herbs picked from your own garden ideal? Of course. But there are reasons to consider these frozen herbs. Let’s go over some pros and cons.
Pro
- You don’t have to spend time picking the herb off the stem
- You don’t have to spend time washing the dirt off your herbs
- You don’t have to chop or mince the herbs
- You don’t have to see any unused portions go to waste.
Con
- You can always freeze extra herbs yourself
- Because they’re pre-chopped, you can’t use larger pieces
- The herbs themselves often clump up into frozen chunks
- Freezer burn is a possibility
So what do you think?
I caved and bought the frozen cilantro because I tend to use it only sparingly in my cooking, but I’ve had lots of recipes lately requesting it. (Mexican casseroles, chicken chili, etc.) And because I am SLOW, chopping herbs tends to take me ages.
But do you think it’s worth cutting the corner or would you rather stick with fresh?
(Cross-posted from my personal blog, Don’t Mind the Mess.)
After a bit of delay, I’ve finally made my recipe! (Here’s Part 1 if you want to see my background research.)
As I expected with this kind of winging it, there would inevitably be things that didn’t quite work out right and decisions I’d take back. I think, overall, it was quite successful and I’m adding my tweaks to the recipe I’ll give you at the end of this post.
So, without further ado, let’s make some Veggie and Black Bean Enchiladas!!
Like any good blogger, I started out with making sure I had all my ingredients and laid them out all pretty.
I’ve got my veggies all laid out. Cumin is the spice of the day, but going through my spices I figured we could use a little Chipotle Chile Powder.
For the filling I decided to give a little saute to my veggies. So first, I chopped up my zucchini, onion, green pepper and a jalapeno. I was a little worried that I’d chopped my zucchini too big. I threw them into a pan, set it low-ish and gave them just a light saute. I was worried about getting them too mushy and what that would do in the oven. I also threw in my cumin and chile powder to the sauteeing veggies.
Once I had them out it was time to throw in the rest of my filling ingredients. The beans, frozen corn, and some sour cream and cheese to give it a little bit of thickness. I’d originally planned to use diced tomatoes, but when I had everything mixed I didn’t feel like I needed it.
It looks all nice and green, so who needs those tomatoes? Plus I would be using tomato paste in the enchilada sauce.
Confession: I used the enchilada sauce recipe from another site in its entirety. I don’t know enough about it to make it up myself. I was pleased with it, a good thick consistency, and not too spicy or heavy. I’d never made this kind of sauce before, it was surprisingly easy. I still think these would be great with salsa verde, too. Though that tends to get more time-intensive with the tomatillos and everything. This is a great go-to quick recipe.
Then came the lamest part of enchiladas: the rolling. I used a large spoon to scoop filling into my corn tortillas. (One tweak to fix is that I didn’t heat them first to get them moist and flexible. Next time!) It was probably about 1/3 of a cup or so per tortilla. Fold each side in, and set them in my greased 9×13.
Just feel free to smoosh them right up against one another. Then pour your sauce over the top. You want them well covered, not just a thin layer. And finally, give them a good coating of cheese. I used about a cup or so.
Looks fab, right? And completely covers up all your messed up tortillas.
There were conflicting recommendations on how hot and how long to cook. I went for 350 because I didn’t want my tortillas or cheese crispy. Good enchiladas should be bubbly but still soft.
Oh, and make sure you’ve got the kitchen to yourself. This is an excellent opportunity for Daddy-Bug bonding time.
For once I didn’t need to do a vegetable for a side! (We really need to find more vegetarian dishes around here!) So instead I opted for fake spanish rice. I didn’t want to cook it, since I was already dealing with the enchiladas. So I bought a pack of yellow rice, cooked it according to the pack directions, and then added a can of Ro-Tel (diced tomatoes with green chiles) when it was finished. This was a calculated risk, since Eric has never liked yellow rice. (And yet I married him anyway!) But he gave it two big thumbs up and said the tomatoes changed it completely.
I left the enchiladas in for about 15 minutes and they came out looking like a DREAM.
Seriously, don’t you just want to take a big fat bite?? Perfect. I could’ve let them go a little longer, but I didn’t want them to get crispy.
I may not be an expert at plating (and enchiladas tend to get a little messy) but I’d say it looks good, wouldn’t you? With a nice dollop of sour cream.
Eric and I had slightly different reactions to the dish. The zucchini and peppers were still a bit crunchy and I felt like I was eating veggies. But I had a strong suspicion that Eric would have preferred I cut the zucchini smaller and saute it longer so it was softer. And I was right.
Eric also wanted more spice in the filling. I can see where he’s coming from. But again, this is one of those personal preference things. I liked being able to taste the veggies without getting too spicy, Eric prefers his Mexican food on the heavily-spiced side. For purposes of this recipe I’m compromising when it comes to spice, but I am going to use Eric’s version for softer veggies since it’ll probably be more accessible, especially if you have kids.
If you’re looking to get more veggies in your life, this is a great way to go. We tend to rely too much on meat-centric dishes around here, but these were tasty and filling. Eric had seconds! Definitely kid-friendly. I’m pleased with my second attempt at recipe-inventing. I may continue to tweak this one a bit from time to time, as I tend to. But I’m still happy to pass it on to all of you.
So, here it is, in all its glory:
Veggie and Black Bean Enchiladas
3 small or 2 medium zucchini, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper (pick your color of choice), chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, diced and seeded
Olive oil
Cumin
Chipotle Chile Powder
1/2 c. corn (can be frozen or canned)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 c. sour cream
Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
Corn tortillas
Enchilada Sauce (recipe from Word of Wisdom Living, can use canned)
Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium-low heat. Add zucchini, onion, bell pepper, jalapeno, 1 tsp. cumin and 1/2 tsp. chipotle chile powder. Saute over medium-low heat until onion is translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I prefer to saute only about 5 minutes, until veggies are moist). You may also choose to throw in seasoning salt or cajun seasoning for some extra zip.
When cool, add the beans, corn, sour cream and 1/2 c. of cheese and mix well.
Heat tortillas in microwave for 20 seconds or so. Fill tortillas with about 1/3 cup of filling. Roll and place in greased 9×13 pan. Smother enchiladas in sauce. Top with 1 c. cheese.
Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, until cheese and sauce are bubbly.
Yield: About 20 enchiladas, or 1-1/2 pans. You may want to add the extras to a 9×9 pan.
(Cross-posted from my personal blog, Don’t Mind the Mess.)
Making up a recipe is something I never would’ve considered a little while ago. That’s what cookbooks are for, right? But my confidence in the kitchen has grown. And my biggest source of inspiration for this project is food blogs. I see them throw something together that comes out amazing and I think, “I could do that. Right?”
Mostly it’s a matter of finding something where I don’t have an adequate recipe and figuring out how to put one together. I’m still not a person who can just throw things together. If I’m going to make it I want it to be just right. My spaghetti sauce was made up mostly on the fly and I’m still tinkering with it to this day. I’d really love to be able to write it down when I’m done and say, “Here it is!”
Step 1: Inspiration
The other day I got a frozen Black Bean & Veggie Enchilada for lunch and liked it more than I expected. I did wish they’d used less tofu and more beans or veggies, but I thought… Hmm, I could do this.
Step 2: Background Info
Next comes a little research. I’m not the kind of person who just throws stuff in a pot. I haven’t made enough enchiladas to know just how to do them and I’ve only made them with meat & cheese.
First, I pulled up the product page for the enchiladas I ate. Mostly I wanted their list of veggies, though I already had my own planned. Zucchini, corn, tomatoes, onions and peppers were on my list. I wasn’t too far off. These are the veggies I normally use in my Calabacitas (Mexican veggies, mostly zucchini). I could use frozen/canned corn and canned tomatoes. Plus I use zucchini, onions and peppers often enough that I feel comfortable with them. Just a good dice and I’d be covered. And I’ve got plenty of cans of black beans in my pantry.
When I’ve made enchiladas before, the longest part has been making the filling. Cooking and shredding chicken doesn’t happen in a flash. It seemed to me that these could potentially be done a lot faster and easier if all I had to do was a little chopping.
Step 3: Search other recipes
I thought I’d see if anyone had any recipes already out there that I could riff off of. To search I went through Allrecipes, which has pretty basic recipes and a huge database. Then I googled things like “black bean enchiladas” and “vegetarian enchiladas.”
I found these zucchini enchiladas at Allrecipes. Definitely different than what I had in mind, but I knew I’d need the most help with seasoning and sauces, so I definitely stored this one away. Plus it uses jack cheese, which was my plan as well. It uses a cheese sauce with the zucchini–an interesting thought–but doesn’t have a real enchilada sauce. I’d definitely prefer enchilada sauce. I’d use canned if I must, but I definitely wanted to see more.
I avoided recipes like these black bean enchiladas, which calls for picante sauce and salsa. It’s always been my understanding that enchiladas are made with small corn tortillas and have either a red or green enchilada sauce. It was clear right away that a lot of what I’d find online would have flour tortillas and jarred salsa, which are definitely not the same.
These black bean enchiladas have an interesting seasoning mixture, though I’m not a big fan of cilantro. I’ll keep them in mind. They did bring up an important question: should I do any cooking of the beans and veggies in advance? This one puts everything in just plain and then bakes. But with the veggies would I need a light saute first?
These enchiladas have peppers and beans and don’t pre-cook their filling, either. Otherwise, this recipe and I don’t see eye to eye. I only use taco seasoning for tacos because, well, I’m not really trying to get terribly authentic with those.
There are some drool-worthy candidates, especially in the green-sauce department. If I made my own sauce, it would be amazing to knock-off this from Rick Bayless, who I learned from Top Chef Masters is the king of Mexican food.
Here’s one last recipe that helps me put my plan together. This one has a make-your-own red enchilada sauce that seems pretty simple. A good alternative if I’m not quite Bayless-level ambitious. Plus, yet again, no pre-cooking of the filling. I like the style of this recipe, not a ton of ingredients, lots made from scratch.
Overall, I felt like my idea to put this recipe was good. Most enchilada dishes I found are just for smothered burritos. (They’re different, people! I’ll forgive you for not knowing, but just this once.) And even though they’re mostly vegetarian, the fillings seem to be mostly beans without nearly as much veg thrown in. I think I could make these pretty darn awesome.
The only real question that remains is what to do about the sauce. I pull up a couple more salsa verde recipes for inspiration (this one, another one that claims to be just like the sauce at Cafe Rio and one from my foodie crush, theHomesick Texan) and now I just have to finalize my plan. Oh, and Salsa Verde is NOT the same as “salsa.” Okay? (I usually sub out salsa in recipes for Ro-Tel anyway.)
Next I have to make a plan for ingredients and cooking. Then to cook!
Part 2 will be very exciting, I can already tell…
This is the first recipe I’ve ever created.
I guess that’s not quite accurate because I’ve made so many variations on this recipe that I’m not quite sure what the base even is anymore.
This weekend I prepped a new version with a few changes that turned out particularly well. I thought I’d walk you through it.
If you buy spaghetti sauce, you should really really think about making your own. It doesn’t take long (If I make it, it definitely doesn’t take long) and it tastes so much better. I made this up when Eric and I were still dating and he insisted it was better than the spaghetti he’d get from the Italian place by his apartment. I still don’t agree, but it sure was cheaper. Also, you can freeze it and make it whenever you want. Or you could throw it in the crock pot for a few hours. You really can’t lose.
I decided to try adding more veggies to our sauce, since I have trouble getting enough veggies in my diet. Normally I only use one onion and some garlic. This time I threw in some more.
The onion is still there (I used sweet instead of yellow just for kicks), but I threw in a green pepper, a zucchini, and a bunch of baby carrots I had, since I keep a stash around to snack on. I chopped them all up but made sure to separate the zucchini. It doesn’t take as long to cook and you don’t want it to get super super mushy. So I put my onion, pepper and carrot together and sauteed them in some olive oil on Medium.
They say having a lot of colors in your meal is good, right? I like the colors already.
While the veggies are sauteeing, I pull out my sausage. I never ate meat sauce growing up, but I find it makes the meal a little more substantial and Eric definitely prefers it. Normally I use turkey sausage but I couldn’t find any at the store. So instead I just got pork. (Good thing I’ve added all those veggies.) To be honest, the pork gives you more flavor but I try to only use it once in a while.
I always use hot sausage. In fact, you may have noticed I haven’t added any seasoning at all. I won’t add any later, either. Using hot sausage means I already have all the seasoning I need. If you decide to opt for sweet sausage or go meat free, you can season with whatever you’d like. (I’d add it to the sauteeing veggies.)
Make sure you remove the casings from the sausage, and use about a pound.
But before I add the sausage, I throw in a couple cloves of minced garlic and my zucchini that’s been sitting all alone. Give the garlic a couple minutes to be nice and fragrant, and make sure the zucchini gets heated and coated with just a little oil.
Normally I add the sausage to the veggies, but that’s with only one onion. With so much more veggie in the pot, I had to remove most of them and add them again when the sausage was starting to brown. I like the veggies to get plenty of the flavor from the sausage. The biggest hassle about making spaghetti sauce is getting the sausage all bite sized. For this I have a very special piece of kitchen equipment.
I make sure I have a good spatula and I call Eric into the kitchen. He breaks it up for me and my arms get a little rest.
Once the sausage is browned you’re almost done. If you’d like, you can add red wine to the cooking sausage. I always do when we’ll be having a bottle with dinner. (Not this time, of course.)
Then you pull out a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes. I’ve found these to have the best consistency for sauce, and there’s no extra ingredients or herbs. Along with the crushed tomatoes I’ve tried a wide variety of others. Puree, sauce, diced, but this time I decided to go with a 15 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, it seemed to be appropriate for my garden-style sauce. Make sure you drain the whole tomatoes first or else you’ll be waiting a long time for all that liquid to simmer off. I try to break up the tomatoes with a spoon, but you don’t have to work too hard. They should break up through simmering a little bit. You can also add a little tomato paste or basil now if it suits you.
The key is to make sure you haven’t started the spaghetti yet. I make this mistake almost every time. I always try to rush this recipe, but the best sauce is one that’s had plenty of time to simmer so it’s not too watery and it’s super flavorful. If you can give it a good 45 minutes or hour, that’s awesome. Then just make your spaghetti when you’re getting ready to eat. We usually do whole wheat noodles with this recipe.
Then once your pasta is cooked and your sauce is simmered, you’re all done.
I didn’t chop everything super small, just small enough so it would saute nicely. If you’ve got veggie-averse kids you can always dice it up smaller so they aren’t as obvious.
Both Eric and I agreed this was one of my better efforts. I definitely need to incorporate more veggies into our sauce on a regular basis, especially since this is such a staple in our house and I usually serve it without any side dishes. The only thing missing was a healthy sprinkling of parmesan on top. But I can’t be too mad about that. It was only gone because Eric tossed it while cleaning out the fridge, and while I love my parmesan, I also REALLY love having a clean fridge. I love it even more when I wasn’t the one to clean it.
The hot sausage gives this just the slightest kick, it rarely leaves it actually hot. If I’m in the mood for a spicy sauce, I throw in some crushed red pepper with the sausage and sprinkle cajun seasoning in with the tomatoes.
This leaves plenty of leftovers (we generally have a good 4 cups left over). We’ll be having it again tomorrow and I doubt either of us will mind in the least.
Now if only I had a decent camera, I’d almost look like a real foodie.
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce with Meat & Veggies
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 pound carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 lb turkey sausage, casings removed
red wine, optional
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
14 oz can diced tomatoes, whole peeled tomatoes or tomato puree
Saute onion, pepper and carrots in 1 tbsp olive oil on medium heat. When onion is translucent and carrot is soft, add garlic and zucchini for 2 minutes. Add sausage and red wine, if using(remove veggies to a separate plate if necessary). Heat sausage until cooked through, break up into bite-sized pieces. Add veggies back to pot, add tomatoes. Lower heat to Medium-Low and simmer for 45 minutes.
(Cross-posted from my personal blog, Don’t Mind the Mess.)
I don’t find much time to cook these days. When I get home I have 1 or 2 hours before Graham goes to bed and I don’t really want to spend all that time cooking. So we usually eat late or I just give up.
Lately I’ve been trying to bring easy meals back into rotation. Of course, the “easy” is in quotes since I am, apparently, THE SLOWEST COOK IN THE UNIVERSE. I used to blame my old stove, which was definitely not helping. But with my new stove I’m still more of a tortoise than a hare for reasons I can’t quite figure out.
Anyway. New feature. Recipes I love that don’t take super long (unless you’re me). I have only created one recipe myself (which will be coming up next time I make it) but for now I’ll treat you to other people’s recipes that are worth putting in your own personal store.
And today–extra treat!–I will show you many of the little tips I’ve learned along the way, since I need all the help with speed I can get.
Today’s recipe (and last night’s dinner) is Smoky Sloppy Joes courtesy of one of my favorite food blogs, Pinch My Salt. Nicole calls this “The Ultimate Manwich.”
We make these a lot. Sloppy Joes are a kind of comfort food. And these are a great twist on an old favorite, with a sweet, smoky and spicy sauce unlike any Sloppy Joe you’ve ever had. (You can easily adjust the spicy-factor if you are feeding kids.) I will seriously never eat any other sloppy joe. This is it, the pinnacle of them all.
This recipe makes enough for two of us to eat for a couple days, so you should easily have enough for a family of 4 or so. (The recipe only calls for 1 lb and we usually get ground turkey, which comes in packs of 1.2 pounds, so you can adjust that, too.)
I’ll post the full recipe at the end.
To start, we’ll need to do some chopping. I LOVE chopping. I grew up in a house where we always had random knives floating around so I didn’t quite learn how to properly chop. I took a class a few years ago and it was a very very very good investment. (Seriously. If you spend any time in the kitchen. Take a knife skills class.)
For this, we’ll need to chop up 1 onion, 1 red pepper, 2 cloves of garlic and 1 chipotle chili. The chili comes from a can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, so it’s already very soft and easy to cut. You can mince the garlic in a mincer if you like. And all of this is going through the blender shortly, so it doesn’t really matter how well you chop.
Nevertheless, let’s talk chop.
First, ignore my messy counter. And my un-edited phone pictures.
Put on your yoga pants and a smile.
And get out a good knife. You don’t have to have a super fancy knife. I got by just fine for several years with an $80 set of knives I got from Bed Bath and Beyond. But after I took my knife skills class and I had the ability to use my knife well, I wanted more. So I bought this puppy. (Or rather, my baby bought it for my birthday.)
You definitely want to go for a knife test drive. I recommend a good kitchen equipment store, like Sur la Table. (When I was there, they brought out a cutting board and a carrot for me. So nice. And they also do sharpenings!) There are heavy-style German knives and light-style Japanese knives and they’re very different. I didn’t expect to go Japanese, but I did. And I love my Global knife. I just want to add a couple more to my collection someday…
So get out a decent sized chef’s knife and your onion. Hate chopping onions? I will show you my secret way of chopping onions fast that I learned from some kind soul on Youtube.
1. Cut off the stalk-y end and leave the rest of the onion with the hairy end. (That is the technical term.)
I would recommend getting a dish just for scraps. Makes cleanup much faster.
2. Cut the onion in half vertically, so you have half the hairy end on each side.
3. Take one of your halves, peel it, and lay it down with the hairy end towards your left hand and your knife in your right. Imagine the half of the onion is half of a clock and make cuts for the hours. Make sure you don’t cut all the way to the end, leave a half inch or so of space or your onion will just fall apart.
I love this approach because you’re letting the onion work for you. Since it’s already got it’s layers, it saves us extra cuts.
4. Now just slice your onion from right to left. (Obviously you change directions if you’re left handed.)
And voila! Chopped onion. You’ll have a little stump left over on each half. Don’t sweat it.
Next on our chopping block (literally) is a red pepper. I’ve always hated dealing with these, but I learned a super-fast way from the chef who taught our knife skills class. Here’s the secret:
Yup, you just cut off the top and the bottom. Easy as pie. Some people gawk at the amount of pepper you’re not using, but given the time you’ll save I think it’s worth it. Also, consider it motivation to make stock or compost.
So with the remaining torso of your bell pepper, look at where the seedy-part meets the edge and make some nice slices where it’s all clear. Like so.
From here, it’s very simple to make a little space, and make a nice soft slice through that seedy part leaving you only with your nice clean seed-free edges.
From here, just make a few slices long-wise through your pepper and then bundle them up and chop on through.
As I mentioned before, the chiles will come from a can. Never fear. This stuff is great, and you’ll find yourself with more uses than you’d expect.
The only brand in my store was Goya and in Spanish. But in many other stores you’ll see multiple brands. The can is rather small and stumpy. I usually find it in either the Mexican/Ethnic section or close to the canned tomatoes.
But before I start chopping my chile and garlic, I usually start cooking because your first ingredients are just your pepper, onion and some olive oil in a nice saute on medium heat for a few minutes. For this recipe I like my trusty gigantic non-stick pan.
While the peppers and onions are going, I go back and forth between the occasional stir and a quick chop. You only need to pull one sad little chile out of its mushy home. It’ll be very soft and very easy to cut up.
Note: if you want to keep down the spice, I may only add half of a chili. Or you can opt to skip the chili all together. Though it adds SUCH a lovely smell when you throw it in the pan.
Once the onion and pepper are soft, you’ll add your chili and garlic for just a minute or two. Then you can turn off the heat and add all the rest of your sauce ingredients: 15 oz tomato sauce, 6 oz tomato paste, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp adobo sauce (from the can with the chiles, don’t worry, it’s not spicy), 2 tbsp brown sugar…. and then you start a frantic search through your pantry because you must have brown sugar, right? Surely you have brown sugar. How can you not have brown sugar??
Phew! You can probably tell I do very little baking. In fact, I think I use most of my brown sugar just for this recipe. Don’t worry, it’s kept well and is still nice and moist.
Oh, and don’t forget 1/2 tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp of kosher salt and a dash of cinnamon. (I usually nix the cumin because I find there’s plenty of flavor already. And I may add 2 or 3 dashes of cinnamon.)
Once you get this all stirred together, your sauce is almost ready. Now you just pour it into your blender.
May I politely suggest that if you do not have a blender or if you have a very sad blender, that you get yourself a very nice one? It is a worthy investment. I was given this advice when we registered for our wedding and I’m very glad I took it. 4 years in and ours is still going strong despite all the smoothies, baby food, etc. it’s come in contact with.
I generally let it sit in the blender for a while so it can cool. And I may or may not use a spatula to get every last bit of sauce out of the pan. Not just because it’s so tasty but because you can just do a quick wipe and rinse and use the same pan for the next steps.
While your sauce cools, take your ground beef (or turkey, if you’re us, I think turkey works great here with the nice strong sauce, plus turkey was Buy 1 Get 1 free at the store this week!) and brown it. Be sure to season with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper. (Again, if you are feeding kids, maybe skip the red pepper. Eric and I, however, sprinkle it quit liberally.)
Drain the fat. Puree your sauce. And then throw the whole mix together.
At this point, you want to set the heat to medium and allow some time for your sauce to thicken until it looks hefty enough for some not-quite-so-sloppy Joe’s. When it’s done, throw in a cup of grated cheddar cheese. We usually go sharp. Yesterday I used the leftover Mexican cheese from our burritos earlier in the week. The cheese mellows out the taste and thickens the sauce a bit. I’ve made it without cheese before and it’s still excellent, but with a much stronger bite. So if that’s your thing, go for it.
And you’re ready to throw it on some buns and chow down.
Overall, this whole rather simple process took me an hour. Because I am inexplicably slow despite my knife prowess. It shouldn’t take you more than 30 to 45 minutes.
Here’s the link to the original recipe again (her pictures are way awesome-r than mine), and I’ll give you the short version:
Smoky Sloppy Joes (via Pinch My Salt)
Olive oil 2 tbsp brown sugar
1 onion ½ tsp cumin
1 red bell pepper Cinnamon
2 cloves garlic 1 lb ground beef or turkey
1 can chipotle chiles in adobo Kosher salt
15 oz can tomato sauce Pepper
6 oz can tomato paste Crushed red pepper
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 c. grated sharp cheddar
Chop the onion, red pepper, garlic and one chile from the can.
Heat approx. 2 tbsp olive oil on Medium heat. Add onion and red pepper. Saute until soft and onions are translucent. Add garlic and chile, continue to heat for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add tomato sauce, paste, vinegar, brown sugar, cumin and cinnamon. When well mixed, puree until smooth.
Season meat with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Brown the meat, drain fat. Add the sauce back to the pan. Allow to simmer and thicken on Medium heat until desired consistency is reached. Turn off heat. Add cheese and mix well.
Isn’t it funny that I have a million-word blog post on such a simple recipe? Like I said. I am slow. The adobo sauce gives these such a great smoky flavor that I know you’ll love. I haven’t made this for anyone yet who hasn’t really enjoyed it.
Hope you give it a try and peruse the recipe list on Pinch My Salt!