The True Meaning of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2020 cheeseball

I've received some flack recently about my dislike for turkey and refusal to make it for Thanksgiving. As if an obese flightless fowl on an overburdened dinner table is what the holiday is all about. Just the other day, we ran into my husband's cousin, who questioned us on our holiday plans. I piped up about eating charcuterie and chicken legs on the coffee table while watching football and he acted as if I had uttered the most blasphemous statement ever spoken. He implied that our difference, more specifically MY difference, was a bad thing (and always had been). Because I didn't fall in line with the majority of the country in celebrating with rote tradition, I was wrong. But he's always seemed to view me as an aberration on my husband's part, and while his judgement could have hurt, if I let it, because he was criticizing me as much he was sneering at my desire to actually celebrate the holiday rather than force myself to do something I didn't enjoy, I actually felt a little smug. (As I am wont to do.) 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to have a stress-free holiday, eating food that one wants to eat with people one wants to spend time with. There's something to be said, of course, for large family gatherings--if one has a large family. But if one has a family of three, then the pressure of impressing relatives that one doesn't see often is off. Honestly, isn't the Thanksgiving holiday really about being thankful? About appreciating what we have? I have to think that large gatherings with turkey and all the usual sides involve at least a little resentment, at least on the part of the people who are preparing the meal (traditionally the women). I realize that this is the 21st century, and family structures are different--at least for us coastal elites--but I imagine that there are still plenty of households where the women work their asses off while the men belch beer at the Lions and Cowboys. Cuz that's 'Murica, right? And I'm not saying that's wrong, if that's what people want to do. What I want to do is enjoy a day off from my job, eating what I want to eat, with the two most precious people in my life (three, if you count the dog), thanking the cosmos for loving and being loved. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, however you plan to celebrate.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Smoky Joes

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on January 8, 2014. Might make a good playoff snack.

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I decided one Sunday to throw together a pan of sloppy joe to eat during football. I didn't want to make the same old same old, so I poked around in the fridge for ideas. There, I found a jar of roasted red peppers, a container of chipotles en adobo, and a jar of freshly-made pumpkin butter.

Yes, pumpkin butter. The stuff has a lot of the same spices as ketchup--cinnamon, ginger, cloves--and it also contains an actual vegetable and no high fructose corn syrup. It also lacked a certain tangy-ness, which I remedied with a bit of cider vinegar. Mr Minx was skeptical when I told him of my brilliant idea to use pumpkin butter in our dinner, but after I mixed a bit of vinegar into it and gave him a taste, he was a believer.

Not only did I want to use the pumpkin butter, but I also wanted the sloppy joe to have a pronounced smokiness. I stopped short of cooking the meat in my stovetop smoker, but added all of the smoky-flavored ingredients I had on hand, apart from liquid smoke (which might have taken it over the edge), plus the usual Worcestershire and mustard flavors. The result was rich and sweet, but not overly so, with a smoky edge.

While the sloppy joe was delicious the day it was made, it was even better a few days later.

Smokey Joes

1/2 cup pumpkin butter
1-2 chipotles en adobo, finely minced (depending on your tolerance for heat)
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground pasilla negro (optional)
3/4 cup chicken stock, plus additional
1/2 teaspoon smoked salt (optional)
1 tablespoon agave nectar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 medium onion, chopped
oil
salt
1 lb ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
1 roasted red bell pepper, diced

Make the sauce: Combine the pumpkin butter, chipotle, vinegar, tomato paste, Dijon, and Worcestershire sauce in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add the paprika and ground pasilla and slowly stir in the chicken stock. Stir in the smoked salt, if you have it, and taste the sauce for seasoning. If it needs sweetening to your taste, add some or all of the agave syrup. Bring sauce to a simmer, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

While the sauce is simmering, start cooking the onion in a separate pan over medium heat with a bit of oil and a pinch of salt. When onion is translucent, add the ground beef, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and cooking until no longer pink. Add the garlic and the roasted pepper.

Pour in the prepared sauce. Stir well to combine. Add additional chicken stock if the mixture seems dry. Bring mixture to a simmer, then turn heat to low. Cook for 30-45 minutes, until beef is tender, adding more stock if necessary and skimming off any fat that rises to the top. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Serve on your favorite rolls, buns, or toast.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cambodian...Tacos

I usually cook only two nights per week, Saturday and Sunday, with Mr Minx handling the grub the rest of the time. During the summer, I can be as creative as I want, doing homemade pasta or other more time-consuming things, but during football season, my Sunday dinner options must either be: 1) long-simmering; or 2) super-fast. We both grew up eating supper early, a habit that we've continued into adult-hood, so a game that starts at 1pm and ends around 4pm doesn't leave much time to put something interesting together. Even if I have a short amount of time I don't want to resort to a cop-out like grilled cheese sandwiches or frozen dinners. (For the record, we don't eat frozen dinners.)

Last year I was introduced to Keystone All-Natural canned meats. Originally I was like, "what?" But then when I considered that the idea of canned fish doesn't give me a problem, why should other canned proteins? And I have to admit, the stuff is actually quite good. We made two delicious dishes with their canned beef, a Thai salad and the obvious chili, so when I had the opportunity to work with Keystone again, I jumped at the chance. This time, we received canned pork and chicken, both of which will be featured here in upcoming posts.

This weekend the Ravens game started at 4:25pm. That put an even bigger time crunch on making dinner, considering we'd be eating while the game is on. I wanted something I could put together at halftime, for second-half consumption. Pork tacos were a natural. But I didn't want to merely heat up meat and slop it on a tortilla, because I'm a creative person. I decided to revisit the recipe for a Cambodian pork dish called nataing that I made a few years back. The original recipe, from the Elephant Walk restaurant in Boston, uses ground pork, but I thought the Keystone All-Natural Pork, which comes in large chunks that could be easily shredded, would be even better in a taco.

The pork and coconut milk mixture is pretty rich, so I wanted to add a tangy element to cut the unctuousness. Pickled red onion, a popular taco addition and something I already had in my fridge, seemed perfect. A healthy dose of cilantro was essential as well, for freshness. And a squeeze of lime. Chips and guac were a perfect side dish.

Already a pretty quick dish to make, the nataing was lightning fast with the canned pork. And it was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

Nataing (Cambodian Pork) Tacos

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 14.5-ounce can Keystone All-Natural Pork, drained
1 dried New Mexico chile, seeded and deveined, ground to a powder or
2 teaspoons New Mexico chile powder (not chili powder!)
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Salt
1/4 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts, coarsely ground
Taco-sized flour tortillas
Pickled red onion (recipe follows)
Fresh cilantro

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the pork and the chile powder, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon. Add the garlic and shallot and cook a minute or two, stirring regularly, so the garlic does not burn. Stir in the coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce, and peanuts. Turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, until the shallots have softened. Taste for seasoning and add salt or more fish sauce or both.

Warm the tortillas in the microwave for a few seconds to make them more pliable. Add a few spoonsful of the pork mixture, top with pickled onion and cilantro and eat.

Pickled Red Onion

1 red onion
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
A few peppercorns and a bayleaf (optional)

Slice the onion very thinly and place in a quart jar with a lid. Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and bring just to a boil, stirring occasionally so the sugar dissolves. Pour the hot liquid over the onions, making sure the onions are submerged. Add the peppercorns and bayleaf if you want (chiles wouldn't be a bad idea, either.) Allow to come to room temperature before sealing the jar and storing it in the fridge.

Tip: keep the liquid after the onions are eaten to make more pickled onions. I just add fresh ones to the jar and seal up again.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Sweet and Spicy Wings

It's Super Bowl time again, and while I don't have any horses in this particular race, I will probably still watch the game just to cheer against the Patriots. And since the game is on at dinner time, I'm going to want to make something that can largely be prepped ahead of time and warmed up just before we want to eat. Chicken wings are a perfect example of such a dish.

I'm not a fan of deep-fat frying, so I prefer to bake my wings. It seems like many of the baked wing recipes online call for ridiculously short cooking times. I think 45 minutes is the longest I've seen, and even then, the wings come out somewhat flabby and not crisp enough for my liking. So I came up with another method.

Everyone knows that cooking french fries twice makes them extra crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Korean fried chicken is extra crisp because it, too, is fried twice. And my baked chicken wings are nice and crisp because, you guessed it, I bake them twice.

The first baking is done in a baking pan or casserole dish, to capture all of the fat that oozes out from under the skin. The second baking is done on a cookie sheet at a higher temperature to brown the wings and crisp the skin. It may take over an hour in total, but the two bakings can be done separately, with a rest in the fridge in between. That way, you can prep the wings in the morning, and then when you're getting hungry, you only need to preheat the oven and pop the wings back in for 20 minutes.

The result is so good, it's definitely worth the effort.

Also worth the effort is cutting whole wings into pieces yourself. Pre-cut drummettes and flats are about $2 more per pound than whole wings. However, unless you have a nice heavy chef's knife, separating the joints is a little difficult. I remember panting and puffing through my first batch of wings because I didn't have the proper tools. So I bought a small cleaver. The problem with a cleaver, however, is they can be quite dangerous for those of us unaccustomed to using them. It's not a good idea to hold the wing with your free hand while you're chopping down with that big blade because if you slip.... oops. Well, you probably didn't need that finger anyway.

I stretched each wing out on the cutting board, put my left hand well out of the way, and aimed for the joint with the cleaver in my right hand. Sometimes the cleaver cut cleanly, and sometimes I had to chop twice. In any case, it was much more quick and efficient than my wimpy chef's knife.

A few days before I made my wings, I got a box of goodies from The Spice Lab. This Florida-based woman-owned and family-run business offers everything from spices and exotic salts to condiments, kitchen tools, and loose teas. They even offer unusual items for mixologists, like pink salt shot glasses. One of the samples they sent was Caribbean Jerk seasoning, a chunky blend of chiles, allspice, and salt in one of those convenient twist-top grater bottles that keep the herbs whole until ready to use. As the mango pepper jelly I used for my base had a tropical touch, I knew jerk spices would work well even with the other Asian flavors in the sauce. It definitely added a little extra sumpin'-sumpin' as far as seasoning was concerned.

So if you're looking for something other than the usual nachos or sliders as a game-time snack (or dinner), give these wings a try. Of course, they're also tasty all year 'round.

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings

3-4 lbs whole chicken wings
The Spice Lab Caribbean Jerk seasoning
3/4 cup pepper jelly (I used Trappist Mango Pepper)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
2 tablespoons sambal oelek (I used Hung Foy brand)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch cayenne or to taste
Lime juice
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Carefully separate the wings into three pieces, drummette, flat, and tip. (I used a cleaver, but if you have a nice heavy chef's knife, that will also do.) Discard the tips or save in a plastic bag in the freezer until you get enough chicken bits to make stock.

Line two 9x13 baking pans with foil and arrange the chicken pieces in one layer, skin side-up. If you have more than will fit comfortably, use three pans. Bake for 25 minutes. Take pans out of the oven and, using tongs, move wings around to insure they're not sticking to the foil--but don't turn them. Give them a liberal sprinkling with the jerk seasoning and return pans to the oven to cook for an additional 25 minutes.

While chicken is baking, make the sauce.

Melt the pepper jelly in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the vinegar, fish sauce, sambal, garlic, ginger, and cayenne and bring to a boil. Turn down and let simmer for 3-4 minutes. Season with a bit of lime juice. Add butter and cook until melted, stirring regularly. Remove sauce from the heat and set aside.

Once the wings have spent their initial time in the oven, remove the pans and, using tongs, transfer them to a large rimmed baking sheet lined with foil or parchment. At this point they are done and only need browning. If you don't want to eat the wings just yet, cover the pan and place in the refrigerator. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 400°F and return wings to oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until browned and crispy and warmed through.

Using tongs, remove the wings to a large bowl. Give the sauce a stir and pour over the wings. Toss wings to coat with sauce, then pile onto a plate. Sprinkle with more jerk seasoning, if desired.

Serve with celery sticks and creamy dressing of your choice.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



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Thai Red Curry BBQ Sauce

It's football time again, and the Ravens have a ton of 1 pm games. I hate that. It really cuts into my ability to make interesting weekend food. You see, I only cook on the weekends (Mr Minx has weeknight kitchen duty) and I like to spread my prep and cooking out over a long period of time. If I spend a big chunk of the afternoon with my eyes glued to a football game, that gives me much less time for prep. So I tend to resort to either long-cooking recipes like chili or fast things like nachos, both of which are rather boring. To me, anyway.

I also like to make things like pulled pork. A pork butt has to cook for hours, so I pop it in the oven before gametime and by the time it's all over, the meat is ready for shredding. But I can't use bottled bbq sauce. I haven't really found one that I like. Most are too sweet, or too smoky. And I figure if I can't make an entirely inventive meal on Sundays, I can at least make one component from scratch. Like bbq sauce.

I like making sauces, and bbq sauce is easy if you have the basics: ketchup; onion; brown sugar; an acid. Mr Minx picked up a bottle of McCormick Red Curry seasoning recently, so I used it to make a Thai-ish bbq sauce. We already had fish sauce and lime juice on hand, so it was pretty easy to throw together and refrigerate before the game. Afterward, I shredded the boneless mini pork butt that was cooking in the oven and made a salad with a bag of broccoli slaw and leftover peanut sauce.

Easy, time efficient, and somewhat interesting. Oh, and tasty, which of course is the most important part.

Thai Red Curry BBQ Sauce
This sauce would also be a great glaze for chicken wings.

Olive oil
1/2 ripe bell pepper (I used yellow), roughly chopped
1 cup roughly chopped onion
Kosher salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2-3 teaspoons McCormick Thai Red Curry seasoning, or more to taste
Small handful torn cilantro
1/2 cup ketchup
6 ounces (1/2 12-oz jar) apricot preserves
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth or water
Juice of 1 lime
Fish sauce
Brown sugar

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a sauce pan and add the pepper, onion, and a pinch of salt. Cover pot and cook until vegetables are wilted, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and stir well to combine. Cook an additional minute until garlic is fragrant. Add a teaspoon of McCormick Red Curry seasoning to the pan and stir well. Add the cilantro, ketchup, preserves, stock or water, and lime juice and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat until reduced and thickened to ketchup consistency. Season with additional 1 or 2 teaspoons of curry seasoning, and a few tablespoons of fish sauce. The sauce should be fairly tangy, but if you prefer a sweeter bbq sauce, add a tablespoon or so of brown sugar.

Remove from heat and blend to a fairly smooth puree with a stick blender. Alternatively, use a regular blender, but be very careful with blending hot liquids, as the heat buildup in the blender jar can cause the lid to pop off. Either let the sauce cool a bit, or take the center plastic cap off the blender lid and hold a kitchen towel over the lid while blending.

Store in a covered container in the fridge for up to one week. Makes about a pint.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Thai Chili

I hate football season, I really do. While I enjoy the game, both the skill and brutality, I don't enjoy the tension. It's hard having a favorite team, because the enjoyment of an entire weekend hinges upon the outcome of the game. And the Ravens have been sucking big time this season. BIG time. But I put on my Joe Flacco jersey or at least something else purple and sit in front of the boob tube every week, drinking and biting my cuticles, hoping and praying that they'll not make total asses of themselves.

I am a glutton for punishment.

I especially hate 1pm games. We like to eat dinner early, so when the game ends at 4 or 4:30, I have precious little time to walk the dog and prepare a meal before the hungry beast that is Mr Minx comes upstairs for something to take his mind off the most recent pigskin debacle. That would be dinner. What I normally end up doing is making chili or a similar long-cooked dish that bubbles away on the stove while we stamp our feet and grit our teeth in our basement TV room. I can't count the number of chili variations I've made over the years; it's gotten a little tired. Last week, I made something that was mostly different from chili, yet not. It was a fairly lazy preparation, a little sauteing and then some simmering, but it was good. And it made a ton, so we were able to get away with not thinking about one dinner later in the week.

Thai Green Curry with Pork and Green Veg

1 medium onion, diced
5 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled, and diced
2 lbs ground pork
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jar Thai Kitchen green chili paste
2 cans coconut milk
1 bunch cilantro
2 cups frozen spinach
2 cups frozen peas
Lime juice
Fish sauce
Jasmine rice
Chopped scallions, for garnish

Saute the onion and peppers in a tiny bit of veg oil and a pinch of salt until onions are wilted. Add the pork and cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until no longer pink and starting to brown in parts. Stir in the garlic and cook 2 minutes. Add the chili paste and stir well to coat all of the meat. Pour in the coconut milk, bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer.

Finely chop the cilantro, including tender stems. Add half of it to the simmering pot. Cook for one hour, or until pork is very tender. Add the remaining cilantro, the spinach, and the peas. Cook until veg are heated through. Season with lime and fish sauce to taste.

Serve over hot Jasmine rice with a sprinkling of scallions.



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Muffuletta? Or Italian Cold Cut Sub?

A muffuletta is a sandwich named after the bread it is made on. A flattened loaf studded with sesame seeds, muffuletta bread is of Italian origin, but the sandwich itself comes from New Orleans. It's rather like an Italian cold cut sub or hoagie in that it's filled with various Italian-style meats and cheeses, but with one important difference--olive salad.

Olive salad is made with giardiniera (a selection of pickled veg including cauliflower, celery, and carrots) and olives, with spices and garlic. It's likely that some grocery store owner somewhere along the line had a few dribs and drabs of pickled vegetables and olives and tossed them together so they wouldn't go to waste. A fine idea. But I'm not a big fan of olive salad. I love olives, but am picky about giardiniera. Often I find it to be too harsh. In my Polish family, we'd call it ostry. Sometimes the veg are too hard, or the pickling liquid tastes of nothing but distilled vinegar. I kinda wish that olive salad was pretty much just olives. And it is, when I make it myself.

I did just that when I needed to come up with something to take to an Orioles game. The bread used in a muffuletta tends to make it more sturdy and leak-proof than an Italian cold cut sub, but of course it's not exactly easy to find an authentic muffuletta at the local grocery store. So I compromised. Giant sells cheese breads that come in a flattish square shape, with good crust, crisp without being hard, and a sturdy crumb. The cold cut portion of the program--prosciutto, salami, bologna (standing in for mortadella)--was easy to find, as was the cheese. And right next to the deli is an olive bar. I originally was just going to buy random olives, pit and chop them, but luckily they had a pre-mixed selection of pitted olives with chunks of hot pepper in a herbed olive oil. A swift chop and a drizzle of vinegar--voila! olive salad.

Since my bread wasn't authentic, nor my olive salad, I couldn't really call my concoction a muffuletta. What I could call it was delicious. It keeps nicely for several hours after making and is easy to eat on the go. Or sitting in the stands. Or even on your couch.

Big, Easy, Cold Cut Sandwich

1 low-profile round or square loaf of bread about 9" in diameter (ciabatta is good, I used Giant brand cheese bread)
1 cup Easy Olive Salad
1/8 lb provolone cheese, thinly sliced
1/8 lb prosciutto, thinly sliced
1/8 lb Genoa salami, thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
1/4 lb beef bologna (or mortadella), thinly sliced

Slice the bread in half horizontally. Pull out extra dough from the top part (if it's slightly domed, like my cheese bread was) and discard (or use to make bread crumbs for some other dish later in the week). If you're going to eat the sandwich within an hour or so, then start with the olive salad, spreading it over the bottom half of the bread so it covers from edge to edge. Then layer on the cheese, prosciutto, tomatoes, salami and bologna. Cover with the top of the loaf, press down, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap until ready to eat.

If you're NOT going to eat the sandwich relatively soon, layer the ingredients starting with the cheese, prosciutto, tomatoes, salami, olive salad, and finish with bologna. This way, the wet ingredients aren't touching the bread so the sandwich won't become soggy before you're ready to eat it. (Eventually, the bread will get soggy, but it will take many hours before this happens.)

Cut sandwich in half, then half again. Enjoy.

Serves 4.

Easy Olive Salad

1/4 pound mixed olives and peppers from the grocery store olive bar (the olives should already be pitted)
Splash balsamic
Splash agave
Pinch garlic powder

Chop the olives and peppers and place them in a bowl with the remaining ingredients. If it seems dry, add a tiny bit of olive oil, too, but there should already be enough of that in there. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Serves 4.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Kitchen Sink Chili

Football season has begun! Time to make chili.

This post was originally published on September 27, 2011.
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Kitchen Sink Chili

When the Ravens play at 4pm, we tend to eat dinner in front of the television. Most of the time, I'll make something that doesn't involve utensils, but this particular Sunday, I had lots to do between waking up and settling down on the sofa, so I decided to whip up some chili.

Chili is great because there's relatively little prep and plenty of unsupervised cooking time. Just chop up an onion, open some cans, and go do other stuff while the meal basically makes itself.

I had some odds and ends that I wanted to use up, so they went into the chili. Also, straight-up ground beef seemed really expensive last week for some reason, so I bought whatever other ground meat I could find that was less-expensive. All-turkey is kinda boring, so a package of mixed meats went in with it. Honestly, we couldn't tell that it wasn't beef chili, what with all of the other flavors going on.

Kitchen Sink Chili

2 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 cups chopped onion
drizzle olive oil
1.5 lb meatloaf mix (ground pork, veal, and beef)
1.5 lb ground turkey
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup leftover salsa (I used salsa verde)
1 5oz can chopped green chiles
1 roasted red pepper, diced (from a jar, or roast it yourself over a gas flame until blackened, place in a paper bag until cooled, peel off charred skin)
2 cans fire roasted tomatoes with garlic
1 can black beans, drained
2 cups chicken stock
1 jalapeno chile
2 dried chipotle peppers
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
honey or agave syrup, if necessary
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream, cilantro, chopped scallions, shredded cheddar cheese for garnish.

Mix first four ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a dutch oven, heat a bit of olive oil and add onions. Cover pan and sweat onions until translucent. Add ground meats. Cook until meats are no longer pink, breaking clumps with a wooden spoon. Stir in garlic and half of spice mixture. Add salsa, chiles, red pepper, tomatoes, beans, chicken stock, jalapeno, and chipotles. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours, stirring every once in a while. After two hours, if there seems to be too much liquid, remove lid and turn up heat to evaporate some of it. When consistency is more to your liking, check for seasoning and add the remaining spices and the cocoa powder. If you think it needs a bit of sweetness, add the honey. Allow to cook for another 30 minutes or so, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from heat and serve in bowls with garnishes and corn bread or muffins.

Moist and Dense Corn Muffins

2 cups corn meal
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups milk
2 eggs
1 8.5oz can creamed corn
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
3 scallions, white and some green part chopped

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease muffin tins or corn stick pans with a bit of butter or oil. Place pan in oven to heat.

In a mixing bowl, combine the corn meal, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk, eggs, creamed corn, and oil, mixing together until the batter is smooth. Stir in frozen corn and scallions. Pour batter evenly into preheated muffin tins or corn stick pan. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 regular or 6 jumbo corn muffins.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.




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Lamb Tagine Chili

Yet another football-filled Sunday rolled around posing yet another dinner dilemma. Should I make something that cooks up quickly, or something that can stew on the stove for a bit while the game is on? On days when the Ravens lose, I am often too dispirited to put a tasty meal together, so it's best that I get dinner started well in advance. Chili is usually my go-to long-simmered meal, but honestly, I am so tired of it. I've made green chilis and red chilis, chilis with turkey, chicken, beef, and lamb. With cubed meat and with ground meat. Just about the only thing I haven't tried making chili with is tofu, and as much as I like the stuff, I don't think I could make it work.

Forget tofu. I went with lamb.

Rather than use a typical chili flavor profile, I switched things up and added things that one might fine in a Moroccan tagine: orange, lemon, olives, cinnamon. But it still has the coriander and cumin flavors of more familiar Tex-Mex chili. Except for the chile powder. If you want it spicy, feel free to add chiles.

Lamb Tagine Chili

2 leeks
Olive oil
2 pounds ground lamb
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Generous pinch cayenne
1/2 cup orange juice
Rind from half a lemon, julienned
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 roasted red peppers, diced
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon honey
1-2 tablespoons of flour
Salt to taste
1½ tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 cup green olives, sliced
Cilantro leaves (optional)
Basmati rice

Cut the leeks in half and slice thinly. Wash thoroughly to get rid of any sand or dirt. Add a bit of olive oil to a large pot or dutch oven and saute the leeks for a few minutes. Add the lamb and cook, stirring frequently, until the meat is broken up into smaller chunks and browning in spots, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and spices and cook an additional five minutes. Add the orange juice, lemon rind, tomatoes, peppers, and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium-low and simmer for at least an hour, until meat is tender.

Skim fat from broth and bring to a boil. Combine the flour with twice as much warm water (or stock, or sauce from the pot) and stir well to make a runny slurry. Dribble into the chili and stir to combine. Add as much or as little as you need to achieve a consistency you like. Stir in the honey and add salt to taste (at least a couple of teaspoons).

Serve over basmati rice with a sprinkle of sesame seeds, some olives, and cilantro, if you wish.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Smokey Joes

I decided one Sunday to throw together a pan of sloppy joe to eat during football. I didn't want to make the same old same old, so I poked around in the fridge for ideas. There, I found a jar of roasted red peppers, a container of chipotles en adobo, and a jar of freshly-made pumpkin butter.

Yes, pumpkin butter. The stuff has a lot of the same spices as ketchup--cinnamon, ginger, cloves--and it also contains an actual vegetable and no high fructose corn syrup. It also lacked a certain tangy-ness, which I remedied with a bit of cider vinegar. Mr Minx was skeptical when I told him of my brilliant idea to use pumpkin butter in our dinner, but after I mixed a bit of vinegar into it and gave him a taste, he was a believer.

Not only did I want to use the pumpkin butter, but I also wanted the sloppy joe to have a pronounced smokiness. I stopped short of cooking the meat in my stovetop smoker, but added all of the smoky-flavored ingredients I had on hand, apart from liquid smoke (which might have taken it over the edge), plus the usual Worcestershire and mustard flavors. The result was rich and sweet, but not overly so, with a smoky edge.

While the sloppy joe was delicious the day it was made, it was even better a few days later.

Smokey Joes

1/2 cup pumpkin butter
1-2 chipotles en adobo, finely minced (depending on your tolerance for heat)
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground pasilla negro (optional)
3/4 cup chicken stock, plus additional
1/2 teaspoon smoked salt (optional)
1 tablespoon agave nectar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 medium onion, chopped
oil
salt
1 lb ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
1 roasted red bell pepper, diced

Make the sauce: Combine the pumpkin butter, chipotle, vinegar, tomato paste, Dijon, and Worcestershire sauce in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add the paprika and ground pasilla and slowly stir in the chicken stock. Stir in the smoked salt, if you have it, and taste the sauce for seasoning. If it needs sweetening to your taste, add some or all of the agave syrup. Bring sauce to a simmer, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

While the sauce is simmering, start cooking the onion in a separate pan over medium heat with a bit of oil and a pinch of salt. When onion is translucent, add the ground beef, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and cooking until no longer pink. Add the garlic and the roasted pepper.

Pour in the prepared sauce. Stir well to combine. Add additional chicken stock if the mixture seems dry. Bring mixture to a simmer, then turn heat to low. Cook for 30-45 minutes, until beef is tender, adding more stock if necessary and skimming off any fat that rises to the top. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Serve on your favorite rolls, buns, or toast.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Multi Chile Chili

It's football season, and that usually means my Sundays are consumed by Ravens' games. Since most games start at 1pm, they cut into my normal Sunday afternoon cooking and baking time, which means I have to come up with something that doesn't involve a lot of prep or a la minute cooking for dinner. My go-to Sunday dish is chili.

I feel like I make chili a lot, so I find myself trying to alter my usual pretty-darn-good recipe so I don't get bored. One week, there was a surfeit of poblano peppers at the local farmers' market, so I bought a bunch. I figured I could make a chili that had several kinds of peppers in it, since I usually do have various dried chiles in the cupboard and always a jar of chipotles en adobo in the fridge. I also added a couple different chile powders, including the smoky-flavored pasilla negro powder I recently purchased at Spices Etc.

The resulting bowl of red was meaty and spicy, which more than made up for the Ravens' lackluster performance.

Five (or More) Chile Chili

6 poblano peppers
4 dried New Mexico chiles
2 onions, chopped
oil
pinch salt
3 lbs ground beef
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
2 teaspoons pasilla negro chile powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
2 chipotles en adobo, minced
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon Sriracha
1 cup beef broth
Salt and pepper to taste
chopped scallions for garnish

Roast poblanos over an open flame until charred all over. Place charred peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. When cool enough to handle, rub off the skin, remove the stem and seeds, and cut the peppers into small pieces.

Snip stem end off New Mexico chiles and shake out seeds. Soak chiles in boiling water to cover until chiles are pliable. Break into pieces and put in a blender or mini-prep food processor with enough of the soaking water to make a puree.

In a large pot or dutch oven, cook the onions in a bit of oil and a pinch of salt until onions are translucent. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until meat is cooked through. Add garlic and spices and stir well to combine.

Add poblanos, New Mexico chile puree, tomatoes, Sriracha, and beef broth to the pot and bring chili to a boil. Turn heat down to a bare simmer and cook for about 2 hours, or until meat is very tender. Add more cumin, coriander, and chile powders to taste, along with salt and pepper.

Serve garnished with chopped scallions.

Serves 8-10



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Meyer Lemon Salsa

Up until this point, I had never tasted a Meyer lemon. I had read about them repeatedly, how they were sweeter and less tangy than regular lemons, but hadn't even seen them in the store. Then, on a recent trip to Wegman's, I discovered bags of the fruits in their voluminous produce department and tossed one in the cart.

Now the question was: What to do with five Meyer lemons? 

The rind of Lemon One went into both an apple galette and a garnish for some Parisian gnocchi I made for dinner one night. Another piece of that rind went into the bag I used to sous vide some pork tenderloins, along with salt, pepper, and pinches of onion and garlic powder. The flesh of the lemon was squeezed into a glass of mighty tasty Meyer lemonade.

That left four Meyer lemons. I consulted this LA Times list, "100 Things to do with a Meyer lemon," which encouraged me to find Suzanne Goin's recipe for Meyer lemon salsa. I found an adapted version, which I adapted further. You know, because I can't ever follow a recipe to the letter...I have to make everything mine. 

Goin's salsa recipe, kind of a gremolata on steroids, calls for raw shallot, which is macerated in Champagne vinegar for a few minutes before adding the other ingredients. I felt the combination might be too sharp, so I cooked the shallot until just translucent. The combination of shallot, lemon, and a ton of parsley was delicious, and perfect with the subtly lemon-infused flavors of the fork-tender 135° pork tenderloin.

There are two lemons left. Any suggestions?

Meyer Lemon Salsa
Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin

2 tablespoons finely diced shallot
olive oil
2 large Meyer lemons
1/2 cup green olives pitted and chopped
4 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon agave syrup or honey
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook shallot in a tiny bit of olive oil until translucent. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Remove both ends from the lemon and cut the remaining part, including peel, into small dice. Put in a bowl with the olives, parsley, and cooled shallot.

Whisk together the vinegar, agave syrup, and olive oil. Toss with lemon mixture. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Special Super Bowl Dinner at B&O Brasserie

B&O Brasserie's chef Thomas Dunklin hails from New Orleans, site of the upcoming Ravens/49ers Harbowl, so he's put together a menu of New Orleans meets Baltimore yummies to celebrate.

From Friday, Feb 1 through Sunday, Feb 3, diners can choose from a five-course Super Bowl special menu, as well as the usual a la carte selections AND Restaurant Week.

For a ridiculously reasonable $50 per person, diners get the following five courses plus a local beer.

Warshore Oyster Roast

With garlic, paprika, butter

Crawfish "Boil"

Coddies, creole mustard, green tomato jam

Boudin Stuffed Flounder

Served with baked baby artichokes, meyer lemon butter

Ribeye Deckel Cut

With a "tiger sauce" crab crust and served with potato purée, house made Worcestershire

Fig and Goat Cheese King Cake

Sounds good, no?

Go Ravens!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Tostitos Homecoming Party Bowl

Not that we can thank our service men and women enough, but this was a fun thing to do.

On December 13th,Tostitos turned football dreams into reality for a group of unsuspecting military veterans. This one-of-a-kind on-field surprise party – created to celebrate the homecoming of veterans who have previously served overseas – was complete with legendary college football players and coaches, including Bobby Bowden, Urban Meyer, Kurt Warner and Marcus Allen; actor and screenwriter, Owen Wilson; sideline reporting with actor, Eric Stonestreet, and a performance by chart-topping musical guest, Gym Class Heroes.

Thirty unsuspecting service men and women arrived onsite at Cerritos College just south of Los Angeles ready to play a casual game of flag football to benefit Got Your 6 and the Pat Tillman Foundation. Unbeknownst to them, more than 12,000 fans were eagerly awaiting their arrival, ready to cheer them on as they entered the jam-packed stadium. While suiting up for the game, legendary college football coaches Bobby Bowden and Urban Meyer arrived announcing they would each be leading a team, calling the plays and coaching their respective players to victory.

The service men and women were then joined by former college and professional football greats Marcus Allen and Kurt Warner who revealed they, too, would be joining the game to play alongside the veterans. As the players ran through the tunnel and took the field, they were greeted by the thousands of cheering fans, a group of cheerleaders and the sounds of two full-fledge marching bands, making it clear that something big was happening. When the game was over, the party continued with an exclusive musical performance by the Grammy-nominated musical group, Gym Class Heroes.

Highlights from the surprise party were captured on film and will be televised nationally during the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl broadcast on ESPN on Jan. 3, 2013.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Bill Bateman's Bistro

Before I talk about the restaurant itself, I have a funny story to tell you. Ok, maybe it's not so funny, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

Back in the late 90s, a friend was visiting from Texas. We ended up at the Reisterstown branch of Bill Bateman's Bistro, which happened to be a hang-out for Baltimore Ravens players. As we sat and chatted at the bar, we noticed a rather attractive guy sitting on the opposite side from us. We were both affianced, but thought there would be no harm in buying him a drink, so we called over the bartender and told him to pour Mr Cute whatever he wanted. A few moments later, the bartender returned with the message that Mr Cute had refused our drink. Looking back across the bar, we noticed that he was trying hard not to make eye contact with us, and eventually he got up and left. We felt slighted. It's not like we were ugly or unappealing or anything. Sheesh.

A woman standing near the bar addressed us: "Don't feel bad, girls. That was Ravens quarterback Jim Harbaugh, a good friend of mine. He's a very strict Christian and married, so he didn't feel right accepting a drink from strange women." And she went on some more about how good and Christian and righteous he was. That's just swell, but even as a novice football fan, I was pretty sure that Mr Cute was not Jim Harbaugh. Definitely younger, definitely better-looking.

Quite the resemblance. They both appear
to be human males.
Harbaugh looks like a Republican.

Eventually, my friend and I tired of the bar. On the way out, a mountain of a man--obviously a Raven--looked at us sympathetically and said, "Kyle can be a real jerk sometimes." Kyle? Kyle who? At home, a quick consultation of teh Innernets revealed that the only Raven of that name was punter Kyle Richardson. Who apparently was a jerk.

I still can't help but sneer every week when we watch him on Purple Passion, with his co-host, Keef Mills (aka Hatchethead).

Anyhoo...on to the food.

The Bateman's on York Road is usually packed with college students during the school year, but it was pretty quiet early on a Tuesday evening in January. We started off with a small 5-piece order of Bateman's original wings and were happy to find them as good as ever. The wings are well-cooked and still somewhat crispy even with a light coating of vinegary (but not hot) hot sauce.

After a ridiculously long wait - about 25 minutes - in a near-empty restaurant (our waitress must have been having a quickie in the walk-in) our entrées arrived.

Mr Minx wisely chose one of Bateman's several burger options: the Ultimate, with hickory chipotle BBQ sauce, caramelized onions, mushrooms, jack cheese, lettuce and tomato. The Angus beef patty was cooked a bit more than the requested medium, but it was still nice and juicy, with a pleasant grilled flavor. The accompanying fries were standard food-service shoestrings, neither here nor there.

I branched out and decided to try the crabcake. It's Maryland, and Bill Bateman is a local, so I figured it couldn't be bad. Well, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, either. There was a lot of (not Maryland, not blue) crab, but there was also a goodly amount of breading, which tasted a bit stale. I also thought there was a bit too much seasoning, and overall the cake could have spent more time under the broiler. I don't understand why restaurants think light brown crabcakes look appealing, because they don't. My chosen sides - the boring fries and some slightly funky cole slaw - didn't lend any more excitement to my plate.

When dining at Bill Bateman's, stick to the wings.

Bill Bateman's Bistro
7800 York Rd
Baltimore, MD 21204
(410) 296-2737


Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Spicy Chili

I enjoy making chili. For relatively little effort, it offers great rewards.

I seldom use the same recipe twice. I don't use a recipe at all, actually, I just toss ingredients into the pot, tasting frequently, until the flavor profile matches the one I keep filed away among the other junk cluttering my brain. So no matter what I put in my chili, it tastes pretty consistent from batch to batch - meaty, tomatoey, somewhat sweet, and only barely spicy. This time, I thought I'd try something completely different.

OK, maybe not completely.

Uncharacteristically, I used a bunch of dried whole chiles. I removed most of the seeds after soaking them, and I'm glad I did because their fumes nearly choked me in the process. I like spicy stuff, but I don't want my mouth (or any other body part) to burn. I also wanted the chili to have a predominant smoky flavor, so I used chipotles, fire roasted tomatoes, smoked paprika, and even a little smoked salt at the end to finish it.

It was darn tasty, and a perfect accompaniment to a Ravens victory.

Spicy Smoky Chili

3 dried ancho chiles
3 dried chipotle chiles
3 lbs beef stew meat
1 onion, chopped
salt
olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup prepared molé sauce (I used the molé from my chicken nachos)
2 15oz cans fire-roasted tomatoes
1 cup beef broth
Soak dried chiles in boiling water until they are pliable. Remove stems (and seeds, if desired). Chop peppers in a food processor with a bit of beef broth until they become a chunky purée. Set aside.

In a dutch oven, brown meat in batches. Remove meat and add onions and a pinch of salt. Stir well to pick up any browned bits from the meat. If there doesn't seem to be enough fat, add a dribble of olive oil. Cook onions over medium heat until they are beginning to brown.  Stir in cumin and coriander.

Add meat back to pan along with garlic, combining well. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add molé, pepper purée, tomatoes, and beef broth. Bring to a boil. When mixture comes to a boil, turn heat down to low and simmer for about 3 hours, or until beef is very tender.

Serve with your favorite chili condiments (cheese, onions, cilantro, sour cream) and tortilla chips.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Matt Birk and Friends Celebrity Server Night

Because I love the Ravens:

Baltimore Ravens’ All-Pro Center Matt Birk and Morton’s The Steakhouse are partnering to host "Matt Birk and Friends Celebrity Server Night," presented by Northwestern Mutual, to benefit Matt Birk’s HIKE Foundation on Monday, May 9 at 7 p.m.

Imagine Matt Birk and his teammates trading in their uniforms and helmets for plates and aprons and taking your order, pouring your drinks, and serving your dinner and desserts. Last year’s celebrity servers included Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco, guard Ben Grubbs, offensive tackle Michael Oher, and many others! This year’s celebrities will be announced in the coming weeks!

Guests at the event will enjoy a four-course menu, consisting of Morton’s signature hors d’oeuvres passed butler-style, such as tuna tartare canapés, miniature crab cakes, and roma tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil on crostini, as well as a mixed field greens salad, double cut filet mignon and colossal shrimp Alexander accompanied by mashed potatoes and steamed fresh jumbo asparagus, and a dessert trio of New York cheesecake, double chocolate mousse, and fresh seasonal berries and sabayon sauce.

A limited number of tickets are available for $250 per person, inclusive of tax, gratuity and valet service. Advanced reservations are required by purchasing your tickets at HikeFoundation.org. For questions, please call Judi DiGioia, Sales & Marketing Manager at Morton’s, at 410-547-8255.

The event also includes silent and live auctions, including the most sought after Ravens memorabilia and other exclusive items, with the proceeds benefiting Matt Birk’s HIKE Foundation, whose mission is to provide at-risk children with the educational opportunities needed to excel in the classroom and in life.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Go Ravens!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

So it's not food-related, but I wanted to share how excited I am that football season is finally upon us! My hometown Orioles were even suckier than usual this year, but I have high hopes that the Ravens will do well. (I believe the cat shown above is named Ed Reed!)

Oh, here's how football is related to food: tailgate parties! Not that I am attending any, but I'm sure to cook up some sporty chow for future late afternoon and evening games during the season.