Onion and Garlic Marinated Lamb Chops

So, my girlfriend really hates, HATES, the taste of lamb. I've also recently discovered that people have some hang ups about the meat, thinking that it is inhumane to eat lamb. I promise, lamb is the most humanely raised animal that we commonly consume. The lamb is allowed to roam and grass feed before it is slaughtered. Also, unlike many other animals, we use the whole lamb. It's not only humane, it's efficient... and a little gamey. I like that though.

So, I was making dinner for just myself this week and I went to the butcher and bought two inexpensive shoulder cut lamb chops. They're large and cost only $4/lb. The meat is a little tougher than rib chops and the taste is gamier, but I'm always up for that.

The recipe is really simple. All you have to do is grate half of a large onion and two cloves of garlic in to a bowl, chop some rosemary and throw in cumin, olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Toss in the lamb chops, cover them with the mixture, and let them sit for at least an hour.

After the hour is up, preheat your broiler, scape off the lamb chops and broil them. You want to go for about 4-5 minutes on each side, that will give you medium rare chops. I strongly recommend against going above medium. Let's say 10 minutes total in the broiler tops.

Let me tell you, it doesn't look like that marinade will do much, but it really flavors the lamb all the way through. It's probably the strength of the rosemary and the pungency of grated onion and garlic. It's one of those very warm meat dishes that's great for the winter.

I served it (to myself) with some brussel sprouts, cooked in a pan, and cheesy cous cous. Cous cous is a serious staple for me: it's just so easy and yummy. It's also a lot of fun to play with.

Onion and Garlic Marinated Lamb Chops (inspired by Mark Bittman's recipe in "How to Cook Everything")

2 lamb chops (shoulder or rib)

1/2 large onion, grated

2 cloves garlic, grated

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1 - 1 1/2 tbsp cumin

2-3 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

2-3 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine grated onion, garlic, oil, cumin, rosemary lemon juice, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Place lamb chops in the bowl and use your hands to cover the chops in the mixture. Let marinate for at least 1 hour.

2. Remove the chops from the mixture, scraping off any that is stuck to the meat and preheat a broiler.

3. Place the lamb chops in a broiling pan and stick under the broiler. Broil for 4-5 minutes, then flip and place back under the broiler for another 4-5 minutes. Total cooking time should not exceed 10 or 11 minutes.

4. Remove from broiler, let rest for about 5 minutes, then enjoy.

Pulled Chicken Quesadilla

This recipe is inspired by my mom's pulled pork made in the slow cooker. She throws a pork loin (or shoulder) in the slow cooker with some barbeque sauce and pineapple juice for the whole day and makes the house smell like barbeque. Eventually my dad can't wait any more opens the slow cooker and starts the slow process of burning the pork... oops. Luckily, we almost always save it.

Anyway, let's make this a little healthier and replace that pork with some chicken. So, here's what we start with in the morning.

We've got some barbeque sauce, onion, cumin (comino in Spanish), garlic, poblano and chicken breasts.

Slice the onion, dice the garlic and poblano (really finely please, this needs to be the first thing to cook through so that the result isn't too spicy). Put them all in the slow cooker along with some cumin, salt and pepper. Toss them all up while you're at it.

 

Now, add in the barbeque sauce (about three quarters of the container) and some apple cider vinegar and mix it up. Then, put your chicken breasts on top and flip them over a few times to coat with the sauce you made. Plug in your slow cooker and set it to low for 5 hours.

So, if you wanted to use pork instead of chicken, I would replace half of the apple cider vinegar with pineapple juice, it complements the flavor of the pork better. Also, if you're making this for more people (I made it with two breasts, serving about 4) I would use 4 breasts and use the whole bottle of barbeque sauce and the same amount of vinegar. You don't need that much more liquid for the additional food, that's the beauty of the slow cooker. Oh yeah, and if you really like smoke flavor, either use a smoke flavored barbeque sauce, or add in about a teaspoon of liquid smoke. A little liquid smoke goes a REALLY long way. It smells so good though.

So, five hours pass. Now, it's time to take two forks out and go to town on the chicken. Just tear at it with the two forks until it's basically decimated. Take three or four ladle-fulls of the liquid (and beautiful onions and peppers) from the slow cooker and mix it in to the chicken. Yum.

So, now place a tortilla in a dry non-stick pan over medium heat and pile on enough cheese to just cover the tortilla. Put pulled chicken on half of it and fold the tortilla over. Let the tortilla brown for about two minutes, then flip and let that side brown. Remove to a pan.

The result it not too messy, unless you're a fan of overstuffed quesadillas like I am.

We served these babies with delicious Mexican Sour Cream Rice, and you can find that recipe here: Mexican Sour Cream Rice.

Here's the recipe for the quesadillas.

Pulled Chicken Quesadillas

2 Chicken Breasts

1 3/4 cups Barbeque Sauce

1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1 1/2 or 2 tsp Ground Cumin

1 medium Onion, sliced

2 cloves Garlic

1/4 cup (about) Poblano Pepper, diced

4 Tortillas

1 cup Monterrey Jack Cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Combine onion, garlic, peppers, along with cumin, salt and pepper in the slow cooker.

2. Add in vinegar, barbeque sauce and chicken breasts, comibine them so that the breasts are coated in sauce.

3. Let cook on low setting for 5 hours.

4. Shred chicken with two forks and add in some of the sauce (with onion and peppers) from the slow cooker.

5. Place tortilla in a dry, non-stick pan over medium heat and add a layer of cheese. Let melt and then add on the chicken. Fold in half and let brown on both sides. Remove from pan.

Mini Meatloaves and Orzo and Broccoli Salad

I went to the butcher today and decided that I was really in the mood for meatloaf. I asked if they had meatloaf mix, but no luck, so I got some ground chuck and made due with what I had. It was pretty good, and the orzo salad was a nice, light complement to the warm, conforting meat. Mmmm.

While I was making the meal, I figured out some possible improvements, that I mostly forgot to execute. If you're not as forgetful as I am, you can add some chopped bacon if you can't get your hands on meatloaf mix, or make it "meatloaf surprise", by putting cheese in the middle of each miniloaf. Also, if you're worried about cooking the meat in a loaf pan, since it traps the fat, shape the loaves in the pan and then turn them out onto a foiled rack and put them in the toaster oven. Make sure you put sides on the foil wrapping so that fat doesn't drip to the bottom of the toaster, that's really gross to clean. A miniature roasting pan or any pan with sides will also be fine here.

I haven't included a full picture array of the preparation, it's pretty self explanatory, but I did take a picture of the result. Doesn't it look like just like mom used to make?

Not my mom, she never touched orzo, or anything like a miniature loaf pan, but I'm sure someone's mom does both of those things.

So, this recipe is a little faster than your typical meatloaf (which takes almost an hour in the oven). I think you can get it done in 30-40 minutes. Delicious and fast, can you ask for more?

Miniature Meatloaves (serves 2)

3/4 - 1 lb. ground chuck or meatloaf mix

1/4 cup (about) breadcrumbs (seasoned)

1 egg

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3-5 sprigs of fresh thyme leaves (about 2 tsp)

1. Combine ground meat, breadcrumbs and egg in a bowl. Combine, using clean hands, trying not to compress the meat too much.

2. Add in salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and fresh thyme, mix in gently.

3. Grease two mini loaf pans and put in the meat mixture. Place in a 350 degree, preheated toaster oven for 30 minutes.

4. Remove from oven and let cool. If you would like to drain off more fat, turn out of pans immediately and place on paper towels. Pat down the tops of the loaves before serving.

Orzo Salad with Broccoli (serves 2)

1/4 box orzo (about 1/4 - 1/2 cup)

1 head broccoli, florets only, cut off and cut into smallish pieces

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

cheese

salt and pepper to taste

1. Blanch the broccoli in salted, boiling water for about 3-5 minutes. Fish out of water and put into bowl. Run cold water in the bowl and drain.

2. In the broccoli water, cook the orzo for about 9 minutes, or until your preferred level of doneness.

3. Drain orzo and combine with broccoli in bowl, mix in red wine vinegar and salt and pepper.

4. Shred cheese on top and place in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. Stir in cheese and serve warm.

 

Pecan Pie Cups

Pecan Pie and I have a long history dating all the way back to freshman year of college. Something about the veneer of sweet pecans over a thick, sugary layer on top of a flaky crust, it just oozes perfection. I immediately undertook an effort to learn to make a pecan pie and was very successful. Every year at Thanksgiving I started making my pies, but not this year.

Without an oven, making a delicious, sweet pecan pie is not in the cards. Instead, I set out to miniaturize the treat, and came up with pecan cups. By removing one pie from your line-up, this recipe can really streamline your kitchen operations. You can make your apple pie in the oven, while these guys bake in the toaster. Think of what you can do with all that saved time.

To start, all you need is a pie crust, 1 egg plus an extra yolk, corn syrup, sugar, brown sugar, chopped pecans, butter, and a mini-muffin tin.

I made the pie dough from scratch, but a store bought roll out one would work just fine.

First, combine the sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup and eggs in a bowl. The mixture will be VERY thick, so I added about a tablespoon of milk and a little more corn syrup. It looks gross, but tastes delicious. We add in the extra yolk to make the mixture a little more custardy than your standard pecan pie, it will help everything stay in the cup at the end, or so I like to think.

 

Melt the butter and let it cool for a minute. Then stir it quickly into the mixture.

Now, roll out your pie crust to the normal thickness, until it is about a 9" round, and using the bottom of a glass, cut out as many small circles as you can. Remember to roll up the scraps and reroll it. You will need about 24 cups to use all of the filling.

DO NOT forget to adequately flour your rolling surface, or else all of your circles will stick and deform. A slightly larger circle may work better, I haven't tried it, but the back of the glass works fine for me.

Preheat your toaster oven to 350 and grease your mini muffin tin. Press in each circle, stretching it a little bit so that it covers the surface of each muffin form.

 

Now, put the pecans (I put in three or four GENEROUS handfuls) into your sugar mixture and spoon in to the cups. I filled each one up, I think it's the only way.

Pop the little bites in the toaster oven for about 25 minutes, or until the filling is mostly set. Take them out and let them cool in the pan. Then pop each one out and enjoy

 

So small, and so delicious. Just the perfect amount of pecan pie: you won't feel too guilty, but you still get all the gooiness of a regular sized pie. When you bite in, the filling bursts into your mouth, while the pecans on top add a nice crunch. The crust is perfectly flaky. It's everything you could want.

Here's the recipe so that you can try them yourself.

Perfect Little Pecan Cups

Ingredients

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted 

Several large handfuls of Pecans, chopped (3/4 - 1 cup)

1 egg, plus an extra yolk

Pie crust, rolled out, cut into circles with about 1-1.5" diameter

1. Combine sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup and eggs in a bowl. If the mixture is too thick to stir, add in 1 tbsp milk and a little more corn syrup.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and let cool for a minute, then stir into the sugar mixture.

3. Preheat toaster oven to 350. Grease the mini-muffin tin and press dough circles into each muffin form.

4. Add the pecans to the sugar mixture and fill each cup.

5. Place in the toaster oven for 25-30 min, or until filling is set and crust is golden. Remove, let cool in pan and then pop out of the forms. Enjoy!

Miniature Jalapeno Cornbread

So, this whole blog business started when I wanted to make some cornbread for some wonderful chili I was having for lunch. Without an oven, I thought that it might be impossible, but with the help of some tiny loaf pans and the old toaster oven, I got it done. I wanted to share my inspiration with you guys

So, most of this recipe comes from Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything", with some add-ins and and a slightly different procedure. First though, the cast of characters.

So, most recipes for cornbread would start off with preheating the oven to 350. Lucky for us, toaster ovens take about 3 seconds to preheat, so we'll take care of that later.

You make be wondering what vinegar is doing in the picture above. We're getting there. First put your milk (One and a quater cup) in a microwave safe bowl and nuke it for a minute. We're going to sour the milk (if this makes you squeamish, use an equal amount of either buttermilk or yogurt), so drop 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to the mix.

While that's curdling, let's move on to the dry ingredients. Add in corn meal (medium grind), flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir them around. If you're paranoid about clumps, you can sift them together. You will likely only succeed in making the front of your shit yellow, which is fine if you were already wearing yellow.

I love cornmeal, it's such a pretty yellow and it's much more textured than flour. Try using it next time you're frying up a chicken cutlet, it makes a huge difference. You could also go crazy and make cornmeal chicken cutlets with polenta pancakes and MORE polenta, but only if you're like me.

Anyway, now the jalapeno. For this, you are going to want a small paring knife, like the one below.

Cut off the top of jalapeno and cut it lengthwise.

  Make sure you take out all of those seeds, they can be REALLY hot. If you're not a fan of heat, you can use a tablespoon of diced pablano pepper instead, or leave it out entirely.

Cut each half into about 6-8 small sticks and proceed to dice those into small pieces.

Now add the jalapeno to the dry ingredients and stir it around. This will coat the pepper in flour and prevent it from sinking to the bottom during baking. Remember, don't rub your eyes or nose after handling the pepper. I happened to do both, and the pain is just now starting to go away.

Put some butter (or olive oil, or bacon fat) up on the stove now and melt it. I tried cooking the jalapeno with the butter once, I managed to disperse the capsacin levels in the olive oil (that's what I was using), but also succeeded in buring the peppers... oops.

So, now your milk is full curdled, it should look like this

Kind of gross, but it will be wonderful. Beat in an egg and add some of this guy

Add as much as you'd like, but atleast a quarter of a cup. It's easier to mix the honey in with the wet ingredients, since it will dissolve in the warm milk.

NOW is the time to preheat the old toaster oven and take out three 2x4 (I think) loaf pans and grease them up really well. Trust me, I skipped the greasing step once and got a bunch of delicious loaves that looked like they'd been through the war. Make sure that you leave the little metal guard in on the bottom of the toaster, if you overfill the pans it will stop the batter from hitting the heating elements.

They're really adorable, right. So, on reason I love the toaster oven is the glass front. It lets me watch the cornbread while it's baking. I'm just upset I couldn't get a shot.

So, add the wet team to the dry team, and at the very end throw in the butter. Fill each of your loaf pans about half way. You may have a little extra batter, but that's cool.

After the oven had preheated for about 5 minutes, throw those bad boys in for 25-30 minutes, or until the loaves look brown around the edges and a nice golden yellow on top. Take them out, get them out of the pans and enjoy.

Look how pretty they are as whole loaves, and as slices. Can you see one of the curds?

I know it seems gross, curdled milk and all. Really though, each curd is like a little bubble of moisture in the bread. There's nothing worse than DRY, mealy, crumbly cornbread. This is exactly the opposite, it's moist, succulent, almost cakey cornbread. It has just the right combination of heat and sweet to make you want to eat a whole loaf. Not that I did...

Here's the recipe for you guys.

Miniature Jalapeno Cornbread (Inspired by the recipe from "How to Cook Everything")

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups cornmeal

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp salt

1 jalapeno, diced

1 1/4 cups milk (or buttermilk, or yogurt)

1 tbsp white vinegar (only if using milk) 

2 tbsp butter or other fat

1 egg

1/4 cup of honey, plus extra

Steps

1. Sour the milk by warming it in the microwave for 1 minute and then adding the vinegar (skip this step if not using milk)

2. Combine dry ingredients (or sift them), add diced jalapeno and make sure it is coated in the dry mixture.

3. Preheat toaster oven to 350 and grease 3 1x4 (or something like that) loaf pans.

4. Melt the butter (or heat the other fat) on the stove and allow to get pretty hot.

5. Beat an egg into the soured milk and dissolve the honey in it.

6. Add the wet to the dry, stir gently, then add the butter.

7. Fill loaf pans about half way and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the edges of the loaves are golden brown and the tops are golden yellow. Enjoy!

(P.S. I know the shots are all mirror imaged, and no I don't live in some backwards world. I took all of the photos with my MacBook this time, and the camera does everything reversed.)

Help! My Apartment Has No Oven

Hi all,

As you may have guessed, I'm an aspiring foodie who moved into an apartment that is ovenless. I mean, what's a guy to do in this situation? No money to get it fixed, but an appetite for good food. Luckily, the trusty toaster oven in our apartment is a great replacement.

So, about me. I'm a 23 year old Math graduate student (I'll try to keep the math to a minimum in posts). I really love to cook, and before moving in to this apartment I had a blossoming passion for making bread. I also think that it's really cute when food comes in miniature, individual portions (it's really adorable... I promise).

In the future I hope to publish recipes with tips for how to miniaturize all your food, and also plenty of pictures (some of which will be taken by my very talented sister) to show you how to and what to use to make tiny bites of wonder. Maybe I'll even post some toaster oven cleaning tips, so your roommate won't be able to tell what you made based on the crumbs left near the heating element.

Let's talk possibilities: there are tons of foods you can make without ever turning on the gas in the big box. I eventually want to figure out a (clean) way to make little pecan pies (oh my god, Pecan Pie... my first love), maybe even in time for Thanksgiving. Quick breads, yeast breads, chicken, it's all possible. Yum. I'm excited... and hungry.