Chicken Stew

One night, I decided to make chicken stew. I used chorizo, onions, garlic, bell pepper, thyme, parsley, oregano, paprika, cumin, tomato sauce, water, roasted red peppers, and olives. I started by cooking the chorizo and browned it. Then i added onions, bell peppers, herbs and spices. I cooked that mixture for two minutes. Then I added the chicken to the mixture.

I let the chicken brown for a minute on each side. When the chicken was browned, I added some tomato sauce and water and let it cook for ten minutes. I then finished the dish by adding roasted red peppers and green olives. I let that cooked for five minutes. The stew was delicious. I ate it with tortillas on the side. Its a great dish and I recommend making it to anyone.

Home Fries and Chicken

For dinner one night I decided to make chicken with  home fries on the side. For the home fries I started by boiling the potatoes before I added them to a mixture of chicken, sauteed onions, bacon, red and green bell peppers, garlic, thyme, chili powder, and oregano. With that mixture I made sure that the potatoes did not stick to the pan so I stirred the mixture often. It came out great, everything was awesome and especially when you add hot sauce. 

Brisket Time!!

Its probably my favorite meal my mom makes, that it brisket. Its not like BBQ brisket. Its braised in a sauce in the oven so its like pot roast. First, brown the brisket on both sides. Then saute onions and garlic until they soften. Deglaze the pan with a mixture of brown sugar, beer, chili sauce, and dijon mustard. Make sure the sauce gets all of the stuck on bits, or the fond as it referred to. Cook at a 350 to 375 degree oven covered with aluminum foil for about 3 hours or till its tender. For a vegetable, add carrots and potatoes to the dish for the last hour and a half and the side dish cooks alongside the brisket.

When the brisket is ready, let it rest on the cutting board with an aluminum foil tent for ten minutes. After this cut against the grain, if you dont do this the brisket will be stringy and not tender. Serve alongside the brisket the carrots and potatoes alongside the braising liquid as a gravy. Its Jewish comfort food at its best. You can serve potato latkes as a side dish instead of the potatoes and carrots.

Asian meatballs

These are my take on meatballs. I decided to make them oriental since I did not have any tomato sauce. I combined the ground beef with chopped onion, garlic, jalapeno, soy sauce, sesame seed, and sesame oil. 

I cooked them in a frying pan making sure that each side was browned. When each side was browned, I added soy sauce and water to the pan and covered it so that the meatballs could steam.

For a side dish, I boiled some spaghetti and when it was finished cooking I added it to the meatballs so that the pasta could soak up the sauce.

This a great way of making a typical dish like meatballs totally different than the normal meatballs and spaghetti with tomato sauce.

Duck Noodle Soup

My good friend Jesse and I have love to cook together. So, yesterday we decided to make something absolutely delicious. Jesse suggested we make this duck noodle soup his Dad had in Chinatown in NYC. I was up for the task.  We first had to defrost the duck which took a while. In that time, we got the broth ready. For the broth we used onions, celery, garlic, carrots, parsley, cumin, allspice, pepper, a Serrano chili, and ginger. We brought this to a boil and then let it simmer. 

After the Duck defrosted, we dissected the duck into eighths. With the wings and the carcass, we added directly into the broth. I seared the breasts and legs skin side down to let all the fat out. Make sure to trim excess skin and fat because that is not wanted. 

As a side note, with the left over skin use it to make cracklin. Just put them in a pan without any oil because the skin has a lot of fat in it anyways. Cook until golden brown and delicious. 

Back to the soup, when the breasts and legs are seared add them to the soup. At this point skim the soup of the fat on top. After an hour and a half of simmering, we took out the breasts and legs, we sliced the breasts so that they can be served sliced int he soup. As for the legs, we shredded them and chopped them up with garlic salt, pepper, water chestnuts, and an egg white and mixed that so we got a mixture to fill dumplings with. We used wonton skins and made duck dumplings.

 Once we shredded the duck meat from the rest of the carcass and the broth was ready for the noodles, we added the dumplings and noodles and cooked for around 4 minutes. I finished the soup with salt, low sodium soy sauce, bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms  and toasted sesame seeds. If you want to add fresh cilantro and sesame oil that is fine as well. 

Cheese Lasagna

In celebration of being done with one our harder courses last semester, my friend Liz and I made cheese lasagna. It was quite easy due to having a recipe on the box of the lasagna noodles. For the Cheese mixture, we used salt,pepper, oregano, parsley, ricotta cheese, and an egg. We used the jar of sauce I had bought fromt he store along with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. We sprayed the casserole with non stick spray and  put some sauce on the bottom. Next came the noodles, then more sauce, the ricotta mixture, and finally the mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Repeat this until you have three layers and with the final layer just add the remaining sauce and mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Bake for 25 minutes with a foil cover at 375 degrees. Bake for another 25 minutes without the cover at the same temperature. When the lasagna is done, let it cool for around 10 minutes.

Baked Mac and Cheese

Most of you probably know this already, baked mac and cheese is the bomb. Its pure American comfort food. Its everything good in one dish. Pasta, butter, cream, and a ton of cheese. To make baked mac and cheese is quite simple. Boil the elbow macaroni until its cooked but not overcooked. Read the directions on the box if you must. Then melt some butter in a sauce pan and add some flour to make a roux. When the flour is incorporated into the butter to make the roux add whole milk and some cream till it comes to a boil. Once its at a boil the roux will begin to thicken the sauce. Now that the sauce has thickened add sharp cheddar cheese and a lot of it. The more the better its mac and cheese people. Then mix the sauce till the cheese has melted and mix  with the pasta in a casserole dish that has been buttered. You can use non stick spray instead but butter makes everything better. Then in another pan melt more butter and add some regular breadcrumbs into it and make sure the breadcrumbs soak up all the butter. Spread the bread crumb mixture on top of the pasta and bake the mac and cheese in a 350 degree oven for about an forty-five minutes to an hour. 

After an hour and the mac and cheese is golden on top, let it rest for 10 minutes. Then you are ready to serve. Leftovers are great as well. Let the mac and cheese set up in the fridge overnight cut into squares, batter and fry them. Fried mac and cheese is a guilty pleasure of mine and its sooo freaking good.