Steak and Tacos

Man, I just realized how far behind I am in posting, so I'm actually going to skip ahead a little bit here.  This dish is a zucchini taco and on a whim I decided to add a skirt steak.  I added the steak, because I made this dish on the day I went to the store and I was seriously craving some beef, especially after all the chicken I had made leading up to this.  Based on that craving, I picked up a skirt steak.

I marinated the steak in a bit of balsamic vinegar, worchestshire sauce and garlic.

The tacos, flour tortillas, monterrey jack and zucchini.

The tacos ready to go into the oven.

The steak got sauteed in a bit of olive oil.

The final plate, note the perfect doneness of the steak.

Steak and Fries

There's few things that go together better than steak and potatoes.  This is another catch up post from my staycation. 

Here's the stuff for the dipping sauce for the fries.  The sauce was a garlic mayo.  Here we have shallots, garlic, mayonnaise, parsley and thyme and lemon juice.

Prior to mixing the garlic in it was roasted off for about 45 minutes in the oven.

For some reason this post is really lacking in pictures.  So I don't have a pic of the completed mayonnaise.  But obviously this picture above is the potatoes for the fries.

The best way to cook fries is the fry them twice.  These are the fries after they came out of the first fry at 325.

The steak hit a smoking hot cast iron pan.

The fries in their second fry at 375.

The final plate.

Grilled Cheese Part 1

The timing of this one worked out well, since I was home and my final meal of the day was usually at about 2 PM.  This is a two part series of two very different grilled cheeses.  This first one was a caribbean flavored sandwich.

Here we've got pretty much everything you need, onion, mango, lime, red pepper, swiss cheese and italian bread.

The veggies went into a mango salsa, which I didn't get a picture of, but was incredibly delicious.

The sandwiches ready to hit the pan.

The completed sandwiches.

Chiles Rellenos version 2.0

Though version 2.0 would suggest that this was an improved version.  I liken this to Windows ME to Windows 2000, supposedly an upgrade but in actuality a huge downgrade. 

Onions, kielbasa, chicken broth, anaheim chiles, paprika, oregano, black beans and goat cheese.

The kielbasa was fried off in a bit of olive oil.

Now the onion and spices.

Next the chicken broth and beans, which boiled down until the liquid was almost gone.

This version called for the chiles to be roasted off in the oven, which in hindsight was a pretty big mistake.  There's no better way to roast peppers than over the open flame of a gas range.

The side dish for this meal was rice and collard greens.

The other big difference was this dish was baked in the oven rather than deep fried.  Again a novel idea, but not even close to the same thing as the deep fried version.

The final plate.  For some reason I don't have any pics, but over the top is a mango salsa.

Weird dinner times

With the Olympics going on, I've been eating at weird times thus far this week.  Saturday for "lunch" I had a seared chicken breast with poached mozzarella in tomato broth. 

Mozzarella, lemon, white wine, vegetable broth, parsley, basil, olive oil, tomato, red pepper flakes, onions, red wine vinegar and italian bread.

The bread got toasted under the broiler for a bit.

The onion got sweated down in a bit of olive oil.

Then the wine went in to deglaze the pan.

The tomato and broth join in.

And finally the mozzarella just until the cheese had started to melt.

The final plate, the chicken was served on the side.

Chiles Rellenos

Chiles Rellenos have been my favorite Mexican style dish since I think 1998 when my family took one of our last trips together with all six of us piled into the Suburban.  That trip was a two week trip to the Southwest including the Grand Canyon and then a week in Breckernridge.  On the southern loop we stopped for a bit in Carlsbad, NM and the absolute best chile relleno ever.  Well, in the 14 years since, I've been on a pseudo quest to find something as good, and Monday night I think I may have found it, though the cooking method needs a few tweeks.

 The stuff for the peppers.  Anaheim chiles, pepper jack cheese and parmesean.  The cheeses are a bit unique for the chiles rellenos that I've had in the past.  Most of the ones I've had use Monterey Jack cheese.

The dish was served with a gazpacho sauce here is the stuff for that sauce.  Cumin, garlic, worcestershire sauce, white wine vinegar, onion, carrot, cucumber, red pepper, celery and v-8 juice.

The tomato, onion, garlic, celery, and red pepper got pulsed through a food processor.

The rest of the ingredients joined the party.

The roasted chiles stuffed with the grated cheeses.  The chiles at this point went into the freezer to cool down for a bit.

The stuff for the batter.  baking soda, sugar, baking powder, salt, club soda, corn meal, white pepper and flour.

The chiles hitting the oil.  Nothing beats deep frying something.

The finished chiles.

The final plate.  The biggest change I would make is that the chiles spent too long in the freezer.  This meant that even though the oil was only 325 when I put the chiles in, the outside was cooked prior to the cheese being fully melted.  This, of course, is a difficult balance to keep.  Hopefully, next time I pull it off.

Paella

I'm a little bit behind here, but Sunday night I made some Paella.  Paella is a traditional Spanish rice and seafood dish.  My version had chorizo (a spicy spanish sausage), chicken, and shrimp.  So here we go.

Peas, chorizo, diced tomatoes, arborio rice, chicken broth, saffron, bay leaf, onion, shrimp, chicken thighs, parsley, red pepper and white wine.

The peppers went in first for a quick sautee.

The finished peppers.

Next are the chicken thighs.

The completed chicken thighs.

Chorizo

The onions went in next.

Then some garlic

Now time for the tomatoes

The rice

Now the liquid, chicken broth and wine

I brought the mixture to a boil and then added the chicken and sausage back to the pan.

The pan went into the oven for about 30 minutes and then the rest of the ingredients went in, peas, shrimp, red peppers and spices.

The final plate.