Two for One: Pot Roast

When the weather starts to turn cold, there is one dish that automatically comes to mind, pot roast. In the sweltering heat of a Texas summer, I’d be insane to try and make a dish that requires my oven to be on for 3 hours. So, as soon as the leaves start falling and pumpkins start popping up on porches, pot roast is back on the menu. It definitely is a weekend dish, since it requires lots of time, something I really don’t have much of during the week. I love making it on Sundays, while the sounds of the Texans game trail in from the living room and I catch up on the week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy. The best thing about pot roast, besides the fact that it only requires one pot to make (Less dishes to wash!), is that there are A LOT of leftovers. In the past I’ve made pot roast sandwiches and tacos. But this time, I used my leftovers to make pot roast empanadas. The dough for the empanadas can be found in the frozen food section of Fiesta or other Latin grocery stores (Goya and La Saltena are good brands). But, if you are not able to find these, puff pastry works as well. I use the empanada rounds made for baking, but there are ones made for frying, which you could also try out. It all depends on how health-conscious you are feeling that day!

Pot Roast

• 2-4 Lbs. Boneless Beef Chuck Roast
• Salt/Pepper
• All Purpose Flour
• 4 Tbs. Olive Oil
• 5 Garlic Cloves, Peeled
• 2 Cups Chopped Yellow Onion
• 2 cups Chopped Celery
• 3-4 Bay Leaves
• 1-Cup Dry Red Wine
• 1-Cup Beef Stock
• 2 Tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 Beef Bouillon Cube
• Baby Carrots, Whole
• Small Red Potatoes, Whole
• 1 Tbs. Unsalted Butter, Room Temp

Preheat Oven to 325 F.

Season the roast by rubbing it all over with salt and pepper to taste. Coat roast evenly with flour. In a large pot (I use a Dutch Oven with a tight lid) heat 2 Tbs. oil over medium heat. Add roast and sear each side (including ends) until nicely browned. Remove roast.

Add remaining oil to pot. Add garlic, onion, and celery, plus salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring constantly, until tender. Add the bay leaves, wine, stock, Worcestershire, and bouillon. Bring to a boil. Add more salt/pepper if needed. Put roast back in the pot, along with carrots and potatoes. Bring to a boil and cover.

If you’re pot is oven safe, place in oven. If not, transfer to a roasting pan and the place in oven for 2 ½ to 3 hours until the meat is fork tender. About an hour into cooking, reduce oven temp to 250 F.

Once out of the oven, remove roast to a cutting board. Transfer half the sauce and vegetables to a food processor. Puree. Pour back into pot and simmer over low heat. Mix butter and 2 Tbs. flour in a separate bowl. Add to sauce and stir. Simmer until sauce is thickened. Add more salt/pepper if needed.

Slice meat and serve with vegetables and sauce.

Leftovers? Thaw empanada dough rounds. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place a spoonful of meat/vegetable/sauce mixture in the middle dough round. Fold dough over and seal ends by pressing down with a fork along the whole edge. Place empanadas on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. Place in oven and bake until golden brown.

Enjoy!

The Perfect Tortilla Soup

For a while now, I have been on a quest to find the perfect Tortilla Soup. Needless to say, I tried the soup at many many restaurants here in Austin (So many, in fact, that people already knew what I was going to order when we went out to dinner. Ok, In retrospect, I might have been slightly obsessed). Anyway, some were better than others, but I still could not find The One. Disenchanted by my lack of success, I realized that perhaps the perfect tortilla soup was not out there, waiting for me in some Mexican restaurant, but rather, that it’s recipe was locked up somewhere in my brain, just waiting to be made. And that is just what I did. But I didn’t do it alone, of course. The saying goes, ”Two heads are better that one”, and in this case, that was definitely true. Miguel, my favorite co-chef :), and I taste-tested so many versions of the recipe, we probably gained 5 pounds, but in the end we found it. This recipe is as close to the fabled perfect tortilla soup of my quest as you can possibly get. And, I’ll let you in on a little secret. The secret ingredient is time. Let it simmer for as long as you can. That will make it ten times better, giving it just the right consistency and resulting in a more flavorful broth. Trust me, it will be totally worth the wait and all the stomach grumbling! Now, 5 pounds heavier and ready to order something else the next time I go out to dinner, I am happy to say, I have found The One.

The Perfect Tortilla Soup

• 2 Chicken Breasts
• 1 Large Onion, diced
• 1 Large Tomato, diced
• 4 Garlic Cloves, chopped
• 2 Packets Goya Seasoning with Cumin and Annatto
• 1 Tomato/Chicken Flavored Bouillon Cube
• Handful of Cilantro, roughly chopped
• Chili Powder, to taste
• Cayenne Pepper, to taste
• 1 Can Whole Tomatoes, drained
• 1 Can Yellow Hominy Corn, drained
• 1 Large Anaheim Chili, chopped
• 4 Corn Tortillas, cut into strips
• Avocado Slices
• Tortilla Chips
• Shredded Mexican Cheese Blend
• Lime Slices

Fill a large pot with enough water to make the desired amount of soup. Add the first 7 ingredients, along with salt and pepper. Place on high heat until boiling and then reduce to medium heat. Cover and let simmer until chicken is thoroughly cooked. The longer you leave this simmering, the more your broth will taste like chicken. Once chicken is cooked, remove it from pot and place in a bowl. Let cool. Lower heat. Broth will be used as the base for the soup.

Shred chicken and add back to the pot. Turn heat back to medium. Add chili powder and Cayenne to taste, and if needed, more salt. Make it as hot or mild as you want to. Add tomatoes, corn and Anaheim. Turn heat to high. Let boil and then reduce to low. Add tortilla strips and let simmer until the soup thickens. For at least 20 minutes.

Serve with avocado, tortilla chips, cheese, and lime. and cold Tecate!

Enjoy!

Sweet Tooth: Marbled Ganache Chocolate Tart

Once in a while, there comes a dish that knocks me off my feet. And this chocolate tart, whose recipe I found on my first visit to Argentina, pretty much clotheslined me (In a good way, of course). The creamy ganache just melts in your mouth and the Dulce de Leche at the bottom is a nice little surprise waiting just for you. Plus, the swirly white and dark chocolate make it nice to look at (in the five seconds before you devour it). If you don’t like alcohol in your desserts (what’s wrong with you? No, just kidding), then you can forgo the rum, but I find it a good contrast to the sweetness of the other ingredients.

Marbled Ganache Chocolate Tart

• 7 Tbsp. Butter, chilled and cut into cubes
• ¼ cup Sugar
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 Cup Plus 1 Tsp. All Purpose Flour
• 3 ½ Tbsp. Cocoa Powder
• ¼ Tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 200 g (or approx. 2 bars) Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate, Chopped
• 100 g (or approx. 1 bar) White Baking Chocolate, Chopped
• 1 ¼ cup Heavy Cream
• ½ cup Dulce De Leche
• 3 Tbsp. Rum

Crust: Sift flour and cocoa powder together onto a clean, flat workspace (like your kitchen counter). Make a large well in the center, creating a sort of ring of flour. In the middle, place the butter and, using your hands, mix them together. Squishing butter and flout together with your fingers. Fun! Reform ring. Place Egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla in center. Knead with hands until a homogenous dough forms. Chill in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Roll dough out with a rolling pin over a floured surface and place over pie dish, trimming extra dough around edges. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes*. Chill until ready to use.

Ganache Filling: In a saucepan, bring heavy cream to a gentle boil. Meanwhile, place chopped white and semi-sweet chocolates in separate bowls. Once cream boils remove from heat and add half to each of the bowls. Gently shake bowls while adding cream to melt chocolate, mixing with a wooden spoon if not completely melted. Assemble tart as soon as chocolate is melted.

Assembly: Mix Dulce de Leche with rum. Spread mixture on bottom of piecrust. Pour semi-sweet chocolate ganache into piecrust. Over this, pour white chocolate ganache. Using a thin stick, gently swirl to create marbled effect. Refrigerate tart until ganache is completely set.

* Tip: to prevent dough from rising while baking, Place a piece of parchment paper or saran wrap over piecrust and add dry beans over that. The beans will act as a weight and prevent rising. They can be re-used.

Enjoy!

Mystery Ingredient of the Week: Piloncillo

Pilloncilo, or Panela, is unrefined raw dark brown sugar, made by boiling sugarcane and letting the juice evaporate. It has a sweet, caramel-y flavor. Since it is unrefined, it is healthier than white sugar. Because white sugar is made entirely of pure carbohydrates, it is basically empty calories with no nutritional value. Regular brown sugar is pretty much just as bad, since it is just white sugar with molasses added back to into it. Unrefined raw sugar contains minerals and nutrients that are removed from white sugar. Plus, it has less calories, approximately 11 per teaspoon, compared to 15 calories per teaspoon in white sugar. Piloncillo can be found in the “ethnic” food aisle of your grocery store.  It adds great flavor to desserts. I like using it to sweeten drinks, particularly Limonada de Panela, a refreshing dark brown sugar limeade. It’s the perfect drink for those hot Texas summer days!

            Limonada de Panela

•             1 cone of Piloncillo
  
•             Juice of approx. 5 limes, depending on size
  
•             3 Qts. Cold Water

            In a large pitcher, dissolve piloncillo in water by letting the pitcher stand at room temperature for about an hour. Once dissolved, add limejuice and mix well by stirring. Chill before serving.

Enjoy!

Tuna Cakes

A while ago, on one of those typical lazy Sunday afternoons, my channel surfing led me to the Food Network. “Tyler’s Ultimate” was on and crab cakes were on the menu. As I sat on my couch watching Tyler (whose gorgeous kitchen I totally want, by the way), I got hungrier and hungrier. Man, those crab cakes were looking really good. And they looked so easy to make…. Suddenly, it dawned on me: I should make crab cakes! Excited, I headed to the kitchen. But a quick search of my fridge’s contents revealed no fresh jumbo lump crabmeat, a grocery item that, unfortunately, does not really fit into a college student’s budget. I did, however, find two cans of white albacore tuna in my pantry. And, thus, tuna cakes were born. These tuna cakes are a dinner favorite at my house now. They are easy and inexpensive to make, but taste like a million bucks. I use sourdough bread for the breadcrumbs because they add a nice flavor to the cakes. Also, I use freshly made breadcrumbs rather than the dry store bought kind because of the moistness they provide. However, any type of bread or store bought bread crumbs may also be used.

            Tuna Cakes

•             Approx. 5 slices of Sourdough Bread, depending on size
  
•             Fresh Cilantro
  
•             2 Cans of White Albacore Tuna, drained
  
•             1/4 cup Mayonnaise
  
•             1 Egg, beaten
  
•             3 Tbsp.  Diced Green Onions
  
•             1 Tsp. Lemon Juice

            To make breadcrumbs: place bread in a food processor along with a handful of cilantro. Pulse until bread has been broken down into crumbs. If you’re using store bought breadcrumbs, use ½ cup.

            Divide breadcrumbs evenly into two bowls. Set one aside. To the other, add the remaining ingredients, as well as salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Add enough oil to a large skillet to cover the bottom (about 1 inch in height). Heat over medium heat. Form mixture into patties. Coat patties with the additional breadcrumbs. Place in skillet and fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Drain patties on paper towels before serving. 

Enjoy!

Just Like The Real Thing: Potato Risotto

There are few other dishes that intimidate me quite as much as Risotto. I think it might have to do with the fact that when it comes risotto, timing is everything. The slightest misstep results in a yucky sticky mess. I know that practice makes perfect, so believe me, I'm practicing a lot. One day I’ll be able to make delicious creamy risotto with my eyes closed (hopefully). Until then, here is a recipe for a Potato “Risotto” which has all the creamy deliciousness of the real thing without the yucky sticky mess failure part. It is easy to make and REALLY yummy. It’s a great side dish, although, I wouldn’t think twice about eating it by itself.

Potato Risotto 

• 4 Medium sized Potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
  
• 1 Yellow Onion, chopped
  
• 2 Cups Warm Vegetable Stock (Like Swanson’s)
  
• ½ Cup Heavy Cream
  
• ¼ cup Parmesan Cheese
  
•  2 Tbs. Olive Oil

In a large skillet, heat olive oil and add potatoes. Cook until golden. Add onion and cook for two minutes. Add vegetable stock. Lower heat and cook until liquid has evaporated. Add heavy cream and let simmer. Sprinkle with Parmesan and add salt/pepper to taste. 

Enjoy!

Lasagnaaaaahh!!

Garfield and I have quite a few things in common, our love for lasagna being one of them. Lasagna, that perfect combination of meaty sauce, gooey cheese, and crunchy pasta, is quite possibly, my favorite food. I am not a big fan of ricotta cheese, so I use a béchamel sauce instead. Béchamel is a creamy sauce consisting of a flour-butter Roux whisked together with milk and flavored with a dash of nutmeg. Its preparation requires a bit of elbow grease but it is totally worth it, as it is the perfect compliment to the meat sauce.  This is the recipe for lasagna that I have been eating since I was kid, and it still continues to be my favorite. There is no better sight than that of the meat sauce (easily the best part of the whole thing) bubbling around the sides of the casserole dish. The mix of shredded cheeses give the lasagna a nice saltiness, while the fresh mozzarella provides the gooey factor. I use no-boil lasagna noodles since they are easier to deal with and soak up the sauces better, resulting in a moister lasagna. Lasagna takes a while to make, but in my opinion, all that prep and baking time is totally worth the first bite.

            Meat Lasagna

• 2 Tbs. Oil
  
• 1 Cup Chopped Yellow Onion
  
• 6 Garlic Cloves, minced
  
• 2 Lbs. Lean Ground Beef
  
• 1-Cup Dry Red Wine, like a Cabernet
  
• 2 Cans Diced Tomatoes, with Juice
  
• ¼ Cup Tomato Paste
  
• 2 Tbs. Chopped Fresh Basil
  
• 1 Stick Unsalted Butter
  
• ¾ cup All-purpose Flour
  
• 4 Cups Milk
  
• Pinch of Nutmeg
  
• 1 Package of Shredded Parmesan, Pecorino, and Asiago Cheese Mixture
  
• 1 Box of No-Boil Lasagna Noodles
  
• Fresh Mozzarella, sliced

Meat Sauce: Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add ground beef. Cook Until browned, stirring to break up.  Add wine and cook until evaporated. Stir in tomatoes with juice and tomato paste. Salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. Add Basil and take off heat. Set aside to cool.

Béchamel: Melt Butter in a large saucepan over medium low heat. Add flour and stir constantly until smooth and thickened (Do not let burn). Gradually whisk in milk, until well blended and smooth. Raise heat to medium and whisk constantly until boiling (This is the elbow grease part!). It is important that you whisk the entire time, so as to not let sauce burn or stick. Sauce will begin to thicken until it starts gently boiling. Reduce heat to low and whisk in salt and pepper to taste, as well as the nutmeg. Remove from heat and let cool.

Assembly: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a 13x9 inch-baking dish, place a layer of lasagna noodles. Top with 1/3 of meat sauce, 1/3 of Béchamel, and 1/3 cheese mixture. Place another layer of noodles on top and press down, so filling comes out of the sides. Repeat layering two more times. Top it all off with sliced fresh mozzarella. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes, until cheese on top is slightly browned and filling is bubbling along sides. Remove from oven and let rest for 20 minute before serving. Garnish with chopped fresh basil. 

Enjoy!

Tilapia Ceviche

To be honest, Ceviche has always made me a little weary. I think it’s the whole “raw fish” thing that always prevented me from enjoying it. But, after much research into whether or not it was really safe to eat, I decide to make it. You see, while the fish is not cooked in the traditional sense of the word, it is “cooked” by the citric acid in limejuice, which breaks down (or denatures) the fish’s protein, thus making it perfectly safe to eat. After learning all of this and actually tasting the Ceviche, I kicked myself repeatedly for not having made it before. Because the truth is, Ceviche is delicious, refreshing, and quite healthy. Plus, you don’t actually have to cook anything, which means fewer dishes to wash, and that’s always nice. The main thing to keep in mind when making Ceviche is freshness. Only buy FRESH fish. That means, get it at your grocery’s seafood counter (preferably on a Thursday or Friday, the week’s best bets for fresh fish) or if you’re lucky enough to have one nearby, at the fish market. Using frozen fish will result in a mushy and less flavorful dish. I use Tilapia because it has a nice subtle flavor, contains very low levels of mercury, is low in calories and fat while still containing lots of important nutrients, and is relatively inexpensive. The Ceviche can be served alone, or accompanied by tostadas, tortilla chips, or crackers. I like serving it on top of fried plantains, because it’s just the perfect blend of healthy and fried. This recipe will serve about 5 people for one meal, or two very hungry people for two meals, which is the case at my house!

 

            TILAPIA CEVICHE

•      1 lb fresh Tilapia Fillets
  
•       Juice of about 8 limes, depending on size
  
•      ½ Large Red Onion, finely chopped
  
•       ½ Beefsteak Tomato, finely chopped
  
•       Fresh Cilantro, finely chopped
  
•      1 Avocado, diced
  
•      1 Habanero Pepper, stemmed and seeded,  finely chopped
  
•       Olive Oil
  
•       Salt     

            Slice Tilapia Fillets into small pieces. Place in a bowl with limejuice. Cover and refrigerate for at least 5 hours. The fish will take on a white opaque color. Once ready to serve, add onion, tomato, cilantro, avocado, and habanero. Add olive oil and salt to taste. Mix to incorporate.

CAUTION: Use care when handling Habanero. If you prefer, wear food service gloves to avoid any irritation, which might occur while handling it (I didn’t do that and my hand burned for hours afterwards). Wash your hands thoroughly afterwards and keep them away for your eyes (once again, speaking from experience :(]

Enjoy!