Tag Archives: Onion

My country cube steak with saw mill gravy for a crowd


I’ll let you in on a secret. I love red meat. Being a guy one could easily know that but I love bison cube steak when I can find it for a true country breakfest.

Mix together flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Dredge the Cube steak in the flour mix on both sides and set aside until all the yummy cube steaks are covered in flour. In a large camp fire skillet, add oil, garlic, and onions. When onions are clear remove from pan along with garlic. Add butter into pan and allow to melt. Once melted add in cube steaks. Watch them carefully, when the sides get a golden hay like color flip them and give them 1 more minute before removing from the pan. Turn off heat and remove grease by pouring through a fine mesh screen over a funnel into a mason jar.  This filters out the solid particles from the grease. Set this remaining grease aside in the mason jar. It will keep in the fridge for upto a week.

Take 9 tablespoons of this grease, 9 tablespoons of flour, 3 cups of half and half, and 1 pound crumbled breakfest sausage. Sift the flour into this remaining grease in the same pan you fried the cube steak. Stir it until it gets brown, I like a straw brown color. Pour in the half and half slowly while stirring constantly. Add in crumbled breakfest sausage, and stir until it’s thickened. At this point I add black pepper, about 3 tablespoons.  The breakfest sausage can be anything. Jimmy dean is good, or what ever you happen to have.

Serve with a side of mashed potatoes.

The don of meatloaf


One thing I realized my site does not have is my meatloaf recipe. It is the don of meatloaves. There’s lots of goodies in it. Bits of bacon mixed in, there’s chunks of feta, olives, onions and garlic.

 

Soak the sliced italian bread in the milk for several minutes in a large mixing bowl. While it is soaking turn the oven onto 200 degrees F.  Place the ground meat, garlic bacon, eggs, salts, pepper, parsley, cheeses, olives, and onions into the soaked bread. Mix by hand until it all comes together and is well mixed. Turn out onto pan and shape into 4 loaves. (I have a cooling rack that is nothing more then a chunk of 1/4 inch thick steel with 1/3 inch holds drilled in it. I place it over a turkey roasting pan 1/2 full of water. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DOING THIS.) Place into oven and let cook 8-12 hours. After the 8-12 hours has passed apply your favorite sauce ontop of meatloaves and turn to 350 degrees F and allow to bake for another 15 to 30 minutes.

When it is done it will be sticky on the outside, and so moist and tender inside that you can microwave it the next day and not have it dry out on you which most meat loaves others have made for me tend to do. The onions will be clear, the garlic soft and delicious, the bacon flimsy yet delicious. The best thing of all, it’s a great meal that one can cook all day. No longer do you have to rush to get a meatloaf done, you can set it, and forget it.

Typically I use a apple bbq sauce with burbon in it.

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Kulebyaka with meat


What is Kulebyaka? It is a russian tradition among the yamal. It is also called Kulebiaka. Kulebiaka is a rich flaky pastry usually filled with a mixture of salmon, cabbage, and mushrooms, but many other fillings are possible, then rolled up and baked. It is served hot or cold in thick slices, with the addition of extra butter and the inevitable sour cream. My recipe here uses musk ox tendon, mushrooms, cabbage, onions and of course musk ox meat.

Why am I tossing this recipe out? Someone searched for a pastry shaped like a pig with meat. I make my kulebyaka shaped like a pig and it is sometimes done by others. Where this came from I have no idea, probably the French.

Well here we go. Many people have never cooked tendon. Tendon is very tough. Expecially musk ox tendon and or beef tendon. Tendon has a unique flavor all it’s own. I cook my tendons with onions, garlic, and apple juice.

To do this one needs a pressure cooker.

2 lb tendon (beef or musk ox tendon visit your local butcher/slaughter house)
1/2 cup apple juice
3 cloves garlic
1 onion
10 cups waters
1/4 cup apple vinegar

Mix all ingredients in a pressure cooker, bring to high pressure (15 pound psi) and cook for 2 hours! (make sure there’s enough water to prevent the bottom of the pan from drying out. They will be tender rather then tough and easy to chop when done.

Now we make the kulebyaka.

2 lb tendon
2 lb ground musk ox (or beef)
4 onions
1 cup chopped mushroom
1 cup chopped cabbage
4 lbs flour (white)

Roll and shape the dough into an oval piece 1/4-inch thick. Brown the beef and crumble, slice tendon into thin slivers, cool and add cabbage, slightly browned onions, salt, pepper and minced parsley. Pour melted butter and meat broth into the filling. Then pile it up on each piece, pinch the opposite edges of the dough and place on the buttered baking sheet, with its seam down, shaping it as a suckling-pig. To make the kulebyaka keep its shape, thicken the dough with flour on the table. To give a natural look to the pig’s ears, nose and tail and to make them safely pass through a baking process, rub flour on the table into a lump of dough intended for these purposes. Attach all details made of dough to the pie by egg, and brush the surface with egg yolk – this helps get the deep amber color. Use large black raisins or large peppercorns to imitate the pig’s eyes. I’m sorry I don’t know how much liquid to make the dough, I never measure it’s all done by feel. The dough is ready when it won’t stick to your fingers like a bread dough.

Prick the surface and sides with a fork and brush them up with the beaten yolk of egg. Bake at 410° to 426° F until it has the deep amber color.

Don’t knock it till you try it.

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My secret baked onions


This is not really a recipe….but it’s the best baked onions you’ll ever have. There really isn’t much to this. All you need is olive oil, and whole onions. You cannot use red onions for this, they get very bitter. You need white or yellow onions, like vadalia and Spanish onions.

Other onions I like are the italian onions:

Onion Tonda Musona Bianca
Onion Rossa Savonese
Onion Ramata di Milano
Onion Dorata di Parma
Onion Borrettana

I recommend Italian Seeds and Tools for these onion seeds.

You will need wild fennel, also from Italian Seeds and Tools.

I pour 4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Italian olive oil in a small sauce pan, add in a chopped tablespoon of wild fennel. Then drizzle half of this this over TWO WHOLE ONIONS.  Pop these into the oven, with the tops and roots intact unpeeled. The skin and the top act like aluminum foil. It traps and seals in the juice baking/boiling/roasting it from the inside out, the olive oil browns the outside. I bake two onions for 1 hour.  I’ve done it with up to 6 onions. Once they are come out, they should be wrinkled and brown on the outside and fork tender, like a baked potato. Slice off the tops and bottoms and drizzle with the remaining olive oil. They are as sweet as apples with a intense fennel flavor. Absolutely delicious. If you want, add the sliced tops back onto the onions when you serve them to your guests, they can peel the outside and remove the top themselves providing an interesting eating experiance and they can get that good onion, fennel and olive oil scent that’s been building under the onion top. Soft and delicious. Absolutely delicious give it a try without the fennel and olive oil next time if you’d like to do it without growing any herbs or your own onions.

Beer can chicken my way


We’ve all had beer can chicken. Well I love my beer can chicken. I have partaken in many different beer can chickens. They are yummy a favorite when tailgating. Unfortunately some are better then others. There is one that I make that just blows the rest completely out of the water. It all begins with the beer. You want a beer that pairs well with chicken and your flavors. Please for the love of god think outside the box. Corona, bud, and michelob are fine but you want to seperate yourself from every other beer can chicken your friends are making. Make sure it’s a good beer. Keep in mind the styles.

Brown ales tend to work best with gamey dishes, beef entrees or brown gravy over chicken. It depends how it works but I’m grilling mine so, any lighter lager or pilsner or brown ale or pale ale will work.

I like to use Brooklyn Brown Ale and Alpine Glacier Lager.

Now you may ask how do I get a beer bottle into a beer can chicken. Well I like to use a funnel. That’s right I have an empty beer can for my chickens.

So this is what we’ll need:

  • 1 can (12 ounces) beer
  • 1 chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)
  • Olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons seasoning (at end)

First we need to marinade over night. To do this mix together the day before

  • 1/8 cup of each beer (1/4 cup total)
  • 2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon smoked salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

If you don’t have a empty can of beer like me, well open a beer pour it out drink it, and put an additional 3 holes in the top. Then pour in 6 ounces of each beer. Remove any thing inside the cavity. I take these and just throw them in a pan and cook off any grease I can get for the gravy.

Now that we’re ready drizzle the chicken with olive oil and rub it all around. In a bowl mix the following:

  • Garlic powder (2 teaspoon)
  • Cayenne, ground (2 teaspoon)
  • Onion powder (2 tablespoon)
  • Oregano, dried (2 teaspoon)
  • Sage, ground (2 teaspoon)
  • Black pepper, freshly ground (2 tablespoon)
  • Paprika (2 teaspoon)
  • Coffee ground fine (2 teaspoon)

Ssshhhh don’t tell anyone about the coffee. Rub this mix all over the chicken front and back over the legs and the wings. Sprinkle a little inside. If you got extra great save it, it’s excellent on steaks.

  • Half pound bacon

I love charcoal grills for this place a aluminum pan in the center of the grill, pile coals evenly on both sides. Light your coals. When the grill gets hot dip a paper towel in olive oil and oil the grill grate. I like to soak cherry wood in brandy a half hour before. Check your coals, with a hand 2 inches above the grate, 1 tomatoe 2 tomatoe OW! usually tells you it’s ready. You’ll want the chicken over the drip pan. Spread the legs of the chicken wide apart. Suck the marinade into an injector and slowly inject into the chicken in several places throughout the chicken. Slowly lower the chicken onto the top of the beer can. Lift the grate and toss your soaked chips onto the coals.Wait until you begin seeing smoke. Sit you chicken onto the grill over the drip pan.

Pull the legs forward to form a tri-pod. Tuck the wings behind the back (called Akimbo) to prevent from burning them. Drape the half pound bacon over the top of the chicken. Close the lid and let the chicken roast 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. During the cooking process you will have to add you’ll need to add 12 fresh coals per side after 1 hour. If the skin gets to browning too much, tent with foil for the rest of the cooking process. Once done remove carefully off the grill with tongs. Place it on a flat plate and let people awww at it. You can wait for it to cool and then remove the bacon and beer can from it. Though it probably will not last that long.

 

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Italian popcorn


Ok we Italians love our garbanzo beans. (chickpeas) I love them so much I find it’s easier to grow 14 plants per person. That’s a lot of garbanzos per person. In the middle east, they only grow 7 plants per person. I love to roast mine till crispy and eat them with seasoning. This is something really special. I have four favorite seasonings, smokey mesquite which I think compliments the bean quite nicely, little bit of onion or garlic powder, taco seasoning and a greek seasoning.

2 pounds garbanzo beans
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Spice blend of your choice

Preheat oven to 400F.

Rinse the beans with water for a few seconds to clean off the beans. Shake the strainer to rid of excess water. Lay paper towl on a baking sheet, and spread the beans over. Use another paper towel to gently press and absorb the water on the beans. Continue to roll beans gently to remove them from their thin skins. Discard the skins and the paper towels.

Drizzle the olive oil over the beans and use your hands to toss them. Season lightly and then put in the oven. Roast for 30-40 minutes until the beans are a deep golden brown and crunchy. Becareful to not burn them.
To make your own greek seasoning, mix 1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon dried mint, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, marjoram, and onion powder, and 1/4 teapoon garlic powder.

To make your own taco seasoning, mix 4 teaspoons onion powder, 3 teaspoons chili powder, 1 teapoon garlic powder, corn starch and cumin, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/8th teaspoon cayenne pepper.

 

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Italian razors and sausage


English: Steamed razor clam

Image via Wikipedia

Ok, this is a man thing…meat and more meat. Bit of surf and turf, sausage and razor clams, what could be better? Ok…I suppose you can take and add bacon to it….yes I suppose you can sprinkle a little pecorino into the sauce…or use a regular beer instead of wine…This is just the way I love my razors and sausage. I make a lot of it cause it usually ends up on the easter/4th of july table. For normal none family events, you can cut this by a 10th if you’d like, though I’d drop it down a 5th, and live off the rest.

 

30 tablespoons olive oil
40 ounces italian sausage sweet, 1/4 inch slices
40 ounces italian sausage hot, 1/4 inch slices
40 slices of prociutto cut into into 1/4-inch cubes I use rougly 4-5 pounds.
20 medium vadalia onions or any other sweet onions, cut lengthwise in half and sliced into thin half-moons
10 bay leaf
40 garlic cloves, minced
10 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, drained and chopped
2 1/2 cup dry italian white wine
5 teaspoon sweet paprika
40 pounds razor clams scrubbed
Freshly ground black pepper
30 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
3 cups italian bread crumbs
extra olive oil for drizzling
2 bulbs fennel diced thinly
pepperocino or crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
Parmigan cheese

Heat the oil in a large pot with a tight-fitting lid over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Dump in the sausages and prosciutto and cook, stirring occasionally, until touched with brown, 6 to 8 minutes.

Lower the heat to medium; drop in the onions, fennel and bay leafs, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute maybe more. Stir in the tomatoes and any accumulated juice, the wine, and paprika. Discard any clams that feel heavy (which means they’re full of sand), or don’t close when tapped. Place the clams into the pot and turn the heat to high,cook, covered, stirring occasionally until the clams pop open, 10 to 12 minutes.

Bring the heavy pot to the table (a work out), take off the lid. Discard the bay leaf and toss out any clams that refuse to pop open. Season with a few grinds of pepper, bread crumbs Parmigan, shower with parsley, and ladle into wide shallow bowls, a metal trash can for shells, and allow people to sprinkle on pepperocino to adjust spicyness to desired heat, and drizzle with olive oil as they wish!

mmm magnificent, absolutely wonderful. Don’t forget plenty of bread to sop up the juices!

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My beer cheese soup


I am a guy. I love some things that really show I’m a guy. These are the bbc of mandom, Beer bacon and cheese. This recipe combines them all at once. This is in my opinion the best beer cheese soup recipe in the history of beer cheese soup.

 

3 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped fennel (or celery)
1 cup finely chopped carrot
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (32 ounce) carton chicken stock
5 (12 fluid ounce) cans or bottles guinness draught
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
2 teaspoons white pepper
2 teaspoons dry mustard powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 pound moteray jack, cubed
1/2 pound block pepperjack cheese, cubed
1/2 pound block  Jalepeno Cheddar cheese, cubed

 

Put olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the fennel or celery, carrots, and garlic until soft, about 8 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock, beer, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce, white pepper, mustard powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper; whisk to combine. Blend the mixture with a hand blender until smooth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15 minutes.

Stir in the moteray jack and allow to melt. When it has melted, slowly mix in the pepperjack and sharp Cheddar cheeses, a little at a time, allowing each addition to melt into the soup before adding the next. Simmer the soup over low heat until the cheese has completely melted and the flavors have blended, 15 to 20 more minutes.

Where’s the bacon, it’s an after addition. I usually cook 3 pounds of bacon till crisp, and then crumble it. Then sprinkle it into your soup. Mmmm beer cheese soup.

The best thing it is so versitile. You can get some tortia scoop chips and use it as a dip, you can drizzle it over potatoes, add broccoli for broccoli cheese soup, enchilada cassarole, the limits are endless.

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Blackened crawfish, spinach and andouille cream


Blackened crawfish on spinach and mashed sweet potatoes and andouille cream….to me just..the flavor of crawfish, the spinach contrasted with the sweet potatoes and a nice andouille cream…mmm makes me drool, so here’s how I do it.
1 pound sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon oil
1 andouille sausage, diced
2 tablespoons onion, diced
2 tablespoons celery, diced
2 tablespoons bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
1/4 cup white wine or broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon creole seasoning
1 tablespoon butter
1 pound crawfish
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons creole seasoning
1 tablespoon butter
1 bunch spinach, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons parsley

Now I’m not sure about everyone else. I love my potatoes baked rather then boiled.  So to begin we must bake the sweet potatoes in a preheated 400F oven for an hour. They should be fork tender. Then we scoop out them yummy insides and mash with butter and cinnamon and then set it aside. About half way through cooking the potato we need to get the oil in a pan over medium high heat going, and then saute the sausage for 3 minutes, the onion, celery, pepper, for 2 minutes, and the garlic and thyme for half a minute. Then pour wine into the pan…this deglazes the pan. Then we add the cream and creole seaoning and simmer this for about 5 minutes it’ll reduce in half. Then we add in more butter and remove from heat. Then we toss crawfish tails in oil and creole seasoning till well coated. Then melt more butter in another pan over medium high heat, and then saute the crawfish for 1-3 minutes and then set aside.  Then we must blanch the spinach. To do this, bring a pot of water to a boil, then drop the spinach into the pot once it’s boiling for 2-3 minutes, then drain them and run ice cold water over them. This way you get the nice green color still in it. Then divide sweet potatoes amongst 4 plates, add spinach, then the crawfish, drizzle with the andouille cream, and sprinkle on some fresh parsley…mmmm starving now.

Slipper limpet cakes


your right…I am going there! Slipper limpet cakes. Delicious little things. Slipper limpets are a type of snail. Yes these are snail cakes. Don’t run away. These are much better then the snails your thinking of.

Slipper limpet cakes with tartar sauce.

first, the garlic butter….

Just melt and simmer some sliced garlic in it for 5 minutes. Very simple.

Second…many will ask what is a slipper limpet…Well it is a species of medium-sized sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Calyptraeidae, the slipper snails and cup and saucer snails. This is a common snail, usually found intertidally, infralittoral and circalittoral and in estuaries. They will be between 0-70 meters deep in the water. They are known to damage oyster beds and the oyster fishery.

Interesting little fact on slipper limpets..they are hermaphroditic. The largest and oldest animals, at the base of a pile are female, the younger and smaller animals at the top are male. If the females in the stack die, the largest of the males will become a female.

They are often found, sometimes living stacked on top of one another, rocks, on horseshoe crabs, shells and on dock pilings.They are salt water mollusks. Sorry those in the grain belt. You will not find them in stores.

Third…why snails instead of clams…lots of local stores don’t know the difference between a cherry stone and a chowder hog. A cherry stone is a very small quahog clam…a chowder hog is as big as quahogs get…chowder hogs are very tough, and need to be cooked for a long time in a chowder. I’ve not made many friends with local diggers, most of who are con artists and I do not hide that fact from their customers. These local diggers sell chowder hogs as cherry stones at chowder hog prices….there customers ask for 30-40 cherry stones and end up over paying big time. The result usually when I go clamming locally, I end up with slashed tires, profanity keyed on the car, broken lights, smashed windows, and no side view mirrors. So I must drive 26 miles to bristol to go clamming, and there is some danger, the british bombarded bristol with cannon fire long ago. These cannon balls are still in the mud, and they are very dangerous, they can explode when struck. They are reminants of the revolutionary war. They are from british 9 pound cannons. So I tried to find an alternative closer to home without suffering damage to the car, or my self.

Ok now, let’s get to the recipes.

Special dust

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoons cayenne
1 tablespoons oregano
1 tablespoons italian seasoning
1 tablespoons crushed red pepper flake
1 tablespoons onion powder

Put into a canning jar and cover with the lid and ring and shake it well.

my tartar sauce

1 cup mayo
2 tablespoons onion
2 tablespoons relish (equal amounts of sweet pickle relish and hot pepper relish)
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

place all ingredients into a bowl, and mix well. Put in fridge.

slipper limpet cakes

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dust
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup garlic butter
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons green shallots
1 tablespoon onion
5 garlic clove plus 2 additional cloves to make garlic butter, also need a cup of butter to make the garlic butter

1 1/4 cup slipper limpet meat. (it pry out with your finger, and don’t eat the stomach, just want the suction cup foot.)

Combine egg, milk, butter, water, cayenne, dust, and salt in a bowl and mix. Add onions, garlic, green shallots, and slipper limpet meat in a blender process to a rough chop. Add flour to the egg mixture, then top with slippet meat mixture and whisk together. Then add in baking powder and whisk and drop onto a well greased baking sheet with a tablespoon.

You cal also deep fry them, but I think their better baked. Place them into a preheated 350 degree over for 30 minutes.

I got photos…and I got videos.

Link to photos of slipper limpets cakes

And now….video…Of course I tossed them onto youtube. The following videos are in order from first stages to the last. They are short videos, I know some have older computers.

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP1SKBbro5o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B9mzIiWnjs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhwn4KBXvrI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA5MVLQIX00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHbFJ8M_EqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgkKenAbwLQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmmF3tFlEJc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsCSwK21v0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Plj2UIYdk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRnRQ5tk9c4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXfMkKfImNQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojciKT5l69c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKZGCQUc4OQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2NJ17_ODPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59AxA64OwsE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhpLG2COVcA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rgd4NEq_jU
last video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJVp9vIfK-4