Pineapple Black Bean Salsa

Quick, delicious salsa to make for a football game

First, I'm going to write the usual ingredients I use, but second I'm writing what I did today (we had some friends come over, and the pregnant wife is staying away from hot food and currently hates onions)

2 cups chopped pineapple

1 cup chopped red pepper

2 cups cooked black beans

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/2 jalapeno finely minced

2 limes juiced

cilantro (garnish)

What I did today

2 cups chopped pineapple

1 cup chopped red pepper

2 cups cooked black beans

1/2 cup cooked corn (to replace the onions)

2 limes juiced

small dash hot sauce (to give flavor, not heat)

Cilantro for garnish

Toss all the ingredients together with the lime juice. Add in the cilantro last. Let sit for an hour if you can, as the pineapple juices will soak up the hot sauce and jalapeno juice to become fiery and sweet (or in this particular case, sweet with a tiny bit of added flavor). 

Because I was missing the green color of the jalapeno in this dish, I bumped up the chopped cilantro. I could eat cilantro straight, so this was not a big deal for me. I served the salsa with black tortilla chips (my favorite tortilla chips are the TOSTITOS® Natural  Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips (Blue Corn in this case).

This is a really nice and fast salsa to make that people really appreciate. This dish can be easily doubled, quadrupled etc. and take just about any substitutions (as evident by my substitutions today).

Homemade Chicken Stock

Sunday nights are a good time to do food that you normally wouldn't dream of having time to do normally.

Slow cooking, roasts and soups are some things that come to mind. Today Ian and I were staying in to watch the Patriots vs. Ravens and I pulled out ingredients from our chest freezer to make some good ol' fashioned chicken stock.

I like to keep a big glass capped jar in the chest freezer and collect odds and ends from daily cooking adventures. Onion skins, garlic ends, wilted celery, old carrots, etc. All this goes into the freezer jar to save for whenever I feel like making stock. Same thing happens with chicken bones from past roasts.

Also, ever roast a chicken yourself? Ever pull out that weird looking bag they shove back inside the bird? That's goood flavor right there. Most people throw out the gizzards, heart and liver because Americans are clueless with how to use these. Just throw them into a bag and freeze them for later. I had a chicken carcass and a baggie of zombie food (what I call that bag of chicken stuff) that I threw into a big pot.

Looks pretty dull right? 

If your food looks dull, it will taste worse

At this point I raided my fridge and pantry. I had a some slightly dry red onion and yellow onion that weren't quite crispy enough for cooking with anymore, but still had plenty of flavor. We just bought 10 pounds of carrots (oh Costco, how you steal my money so sneakily...) so I picked through them to find the skinniest carrots that would normally be annoying to eat and scrubbed them to toss into the pot.

Some other odds and ends include old celery plus leaves (fresh celery is great in chicken soup), some red chard leaves (little extra flavor and color from the red stalks), parsley and some burdock root that Ian bought a couple weeks ago that we can't find more uses for (we'll see how that goes...). Once all items are in the pot, fill till the chicken pieces are covered. I estimated this amount... not going to lie to you.

Much prettier now, right??

Always remember one thing when cooking...

  The more colorful your food

the healthier your diet 

We're not talking Fruit Loops here, folks. We're talking beta-carotene, lycopene, chlorophyll, anthoxanthin, anthocyanin and carotenoids. Did I just speak gibberish to you? Get friendly with those terms and find out why these pigments in veggies and fruits can help protect your health a hundred times over.

Spice Time!!

I like to take some tips from mi madre when it comes to  spicing chicken stock. That woman can make one hell of a chicken soup based off her stock. She does not cut corners with the spices. She prefers creating a sachet of herbs and spices that sits in the water like a big tea ball. For reasons of laziness, I have not gotten around to buying cheesecloth to make a sachet, nor have I gone high tech and bought a massive tea ball (like this one).  I just throw shit into the pot like the uncivilized chef that I am.

Spices I threw in:

8 peppercorns (whole)

1 tsp cumin seeds (trying them out)

2tsp ground cumin (because I can't help myself)

1 whole cinnamon stick (trust me)

4 cloves (this could be very good or super questionable)

There was also a bunch of parsley, rosemary and thyme shoved into 

the roast chicken I used previously that ended up in this stock as well.

Start cooking the brew.

I was taught to heat the water until you see a couple bubbles here and there. A very slow simmer. Of course, I'm too ADD for that so I end up putting the sucker on high until I see a bubble and say "good" until the entire things starts boiling and I say "AHH". This gets repeated until I figure out the right heat level.

Refrain from doing this, your stock will taste better if you have patience. I'm still working on this.

All that vegetable color cooks out and into the water

  I have found that if you use raw chicken, you will get what looks like scum floating on the top. Scoop off that scum as you see it appear, it doesn't taste good and will make your final broth taste worse. When I use roasted chicken, less scum seems to appear, most likely because you have less juices to work with. For starters, the best way to make stock is to use a fresh, raw chicken. However, I like to be frugal and squeeze out some more flavor from my roasted chicken bones.

After your stock has been simmering for hhoouuurrsss (and you've had a drink, and made some snacks for watching football), check back on the soup. I determine my stock to be good and cooked when I can spoon through the mix and come up with bones that look like they could be used to make a creepy wind chime for a serial killer. When meat completely falls away from the bone like that, it means the heat has worked through the meat and cooked it slowly until it falls off the bone. Perfecto.

Ian helped me pour the stock into a second pot with a big colander in between. The colander catches all the bits and pieces. Forget any vegetables you're thinking of picking out, their flavor has been all used up for the broth. Cool down this broth FAST. For all you scientists out there, you know why. For those of you that aren't, here's why. Broth is THE perfect media for bacteria to have a frat-basement style party in. If you haven't been to a frat basement...it's bad, just trust me. 

Knock down the temperature of the stock fast to keep bacterial growth to a minimum by sticking the pot in a bath of ice water, or do what I did and stick the whole pot outside because it's cold and windy. Once the broth has cooled, stick the whole pot into the fridge and wait for it to gel up. Yes, gel. The cartilage cooked out of the bones makes the stock a bit jelly-like. This is when you can scoop up the top fat layer that rises.

This is the end of Sunday chicken stock cooking! 

Next step is to relax, yell at the TV as the Ravens lose by an superbly terrible field goal attempt, 

and wait for the 49ers/Giants game. 

Verdict:
 

The cloves were a very interesting add on. They have such a strong flavor and smell that sometimes it can ruin a dish, but I think it helps pep up the stock. Because the majority of the chicken I was using for this was previously cooked, I got less broken down cartilage in the stock than if I had used an entire raw chicken. I'll have to give that a shot next. All the vegetables helped give the final stock a really gorgeous, deep yellow color that makes it much more appetizing that store bought stock.
The stock made enough to fill 3 quart size containers that I popped into the freezer and one pyrex dish that is about 8oz. It's good to separate out the stock so that you can take out a little bit at a time as you cook future meals. I like to use this stock for making rice, quinoa, soup, stews, you name it.

Southwestern Frittata

 This morning Ian looked into the fridge and grabbed whatever he saw. Eggs, a mix of bell peppers and onions sliced up, leftover quinoa, and black beans I cooked up a few days ago.

 The "food artist" within him determined that we would be having Southwestern frittatas for breakfast, alongside some fresh sausages we picked up from Whole Foods.

Ingredients Used:

-1/2 cup cooked black beans

-1 tbs butter

- 4 Cloves garlic

-2 tbs tomato paste

-4 Eggs (cage free)

-Bell peppers diced

-1/4 cup yellow onion diced

-1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese

-1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese

-Cilantro (for garnish)

Spices used:

-Cumin

-Cayenne pepper

-Red pepper flakes

-Oregano

-Tumeric

Begin!

Ian sauteed up the black beans in the butter and let the beans simmer for 5 minutes while adding cumin, cayenne and red pepper flakes (to taste). Then he added the bell peppers/onions and the quinoa. 

We keep a can of tomato paste in a ziplock bag in the fridge that's been flattened so that little frozen chunks can be pulled off for cooking. He broke off about 2 tbs of the paste and added this to the pan.

 While the mess of food was cooking over medium heat, we pulled out the sausages from Whole foods and started frying them up. These sausages proved very handy for the next step...please skip if you have any heart problems or if you are sane...

 Caution...

NOT 

FAT FREE!!

But very delicious...

 Ian took the frying pan with the sausages and poured ALL the sausage grease into a hole he made in the frittata mix. This is where the mixed eggs are gonna go to start cooking up.

The tumeric in the eggs makes the yellow color very vibrant which makes the final dish look that much more colorful

After adding 1tsp of tumeric powder to the four eggs and whisking, Ian poured the egg mixture into the frying pan.

Before the eggs completely set, he mixed them into the rest of the food and 

added the shredded cheese on top

Once the fritatta was most set, it was plated with two sausage links (because we went for broke with the calories this morning). After garnishing the top with some chopped cilantro, the dish was complete. Add a piping hot cup of coffee and we had a delicious and filling breakfast for two.

Verdict:

This meal was friggin awesome.

I topped my plate off with a little extra shredded cheese and a couple dashes of hot sauce. Ian had a glass of whole milk alongside his coffee. Without the hot sauce, this meal was very mild in heat. For a spicier mix, chopped jalapeno would be very tasty. However, keeping hot sauce on the table makes it more versatile as everyone in the family can decide their heat level on their own plate. 

We're definitely gonna make this again.

Fresh Juice: Pineapple-Mint Delight

Saturday mornings are tough if you've been out partying a bit too hard the night before. Even if you were lame and stayed in, it's still nice to wake up and make a refreshing drink that kick starts your day.

Here's my new drink

 Pineapple Mint Delight  

First step is to organize all the ingredients. I used a healthy handful of mint (stems and all), 1 cup of chopped fresh pineapple, 1 apple, and a small chunk of cucumber I had lying around (I peeled off the skin).

We have the Omega J005 single-auger juicer. This means that there is what is essentially a massive screw that spins around and crushes up whatever you put in it. The crushing action collects more juice than a regular centrifugal juicer (the ones with metal bowls that looks like cheese graters) and also juice at a lower temperature (less friction). This makes more healthier juice overall.

Reviews online have shown that people bitch about how small the feeder tube is and how they have to chop up their ingredients beforehand. Stop bitching people. Cut up your damn apple and enjoy the juice that you get. We have invested in some good quality knives (Wusthof Grand Prix II) that makes quick work of any produce that comes their way. A quick chop through the ingredients, push them down the chute and voila...the beginning of a tasty smelling juice.

 When we juice, we've found that filtering creates a very smooth juice.
If you don't get enough fiber in your diet, you shouldn't filter. All that pulp is really healthy for you.
We just happen to eat a ton of veggies/fruit anyways.

For those not owning a juicer, I bet this recipe could work if you blend everything

together with some water and then strain out the chunks.

Steak Dinner based off Alton Brown's Recipe

For those of you that don't know who Alton Brown is...shame on you! 

He is the mastermind behind Good Eats, the food network show that matches delicious food with interesting trivia and science about the food that is being made. Ian was looking through one of the cookbooks I bought at one of Alton's lectures in D.C. and came across the pan fried rib-eye steak recipe...yummmm. He added a red wine marinade to the recipe because we adore making steak sauce.

 Ingredients Used:

- 2 boneless rib-eye steaks

-1 tsp olive oil

- 1 tsp kosher salt

- 1/2 tsp black pepper

Marinade: 

(This deviates from the recipe, but we always like a little extra flavor)

- 1 cup red wine

- 2 tbs soy sauce

- black pepper to taste

-dash of tumeric powder

Equipment Used:

- Cast iron skillet 

(look at flea markets, thrift stores and garage sales for one)

-Kitchen thermometer

 Begin!!

  Bring the steaks up to room temperature. Mix together the marinade ingredients and pour into a glass dish that will fit both steaks

*During this time, place the skillet in the oven and heat to 500 degrees. Trust us...it's gonna be awesome.

Once the skillet has been cooking for 15 minutes, take it out of the oven and put it over a hot stove. We have a gas stove so we turned the gas up to the highest setting. You then blast your skillet with inferno level heat for another 5 minutes to make sure your steak is entering Hell when it hits the surface.

Here's the fun part...

Once the skillet is indistinguishable from Hades' playpen,  place both steaks in the skillet and watch them sizzle for 30 seconds. Immediately flip them over and have them sear for another 30 seconds. After the 60 seconds of fun are over, put the skillet back into the oven and continue cooking. The point of this is to create a grilled effect that sears both sides of the meat and leaves the juices inside to keep the steak very juicy.

You can check the progress of your steak by inserting a meat thermometer into the thickest portion of the steak. According to a quick google search you have the following temps to consider  

Rare - 120 degrees F
Medium Rare - 125 degrees F
Medium - 130 degrees F

You screwed up- 130 + F

Okay, so maybe that last section was a personal addition, but you get the point. Alton Brown prefers the insides of his steaks to reach absolutely no higher than 130 degrees. Ian and I prefer medium rare. We cooked the steaks for a few minutes, tested it with a thermometer (that didn't register below 140 degrees, which will be discussed later) and then popped the steaks back in the oven to complete them. 

To keep them juicy

To let the steaks rest, Ian put them in a colander with a plate over top to keep the warmth in. According to Alton Brown, this let's the steaks rest, and some juice come out that can be used for the steak sauce later.

The marinade that Ian made earlier was thrown into the cast iron skillet used to cook the steaks, and heated till it had a good boil going on. One way to thicken steak sauce (or reduction) quickly is to add a little arrowroot to the juice. Arrowroot (gluten free) is a natural thickener and can help speed things along if you don't have a lot of time. Today we had plenty of time, so just went the old fashioned way of reducing the sauce until it was thick enough to cover the spatula.

Once the steaks were put on the serving plate, we adding the remaining steak juice to the skillet and mixed it into the sauce.

Toss the sauce into a bowl and the steaks on a plate and voila!! Steak dinner is complete!

Now, to make sure that you are having a true American steak dinner...you gotta have some roast potatoes. Ian has a trick of microwaving the potatoes (one of the only times we ever used a microwave for cooking) to soften them up and then throws them in the oven for a final crisp. Because the oven was already hot from the skillet, this worked out nicely. Add in glasses of wine and butter for extra cholesterol, and you have one hell of a tasty feast.

Verdict

Well, this was our first time trying the skillet version of steak. We usually just pan fry the steaks from start to finish and have enjoyed that in the past. The steaks ended up not being done quite enough (rare instead of medium rare) so we had to pop them back in the oven for a bit. My guess is this happened because our steaks were abnormally large, about 2" tall. The best steaks are supposed to be about 1.5" tall so that they heat up evenly without overcooking and drying out. 

Even with the second round of cooking, however, the steaks were juicy and tasty very good. The steak sauce was incredibly rich with the added steak juice, and will definitely be repeated again. Oh, and mixing butter with the sauce to melt on top of the steak?? Pure heaven.

To fully enjoy the meal, we went with Ian's favorite wine, the Tarima Monastell 2009

(look at earlier post for our review of this wine!)

Gluten Free Alcohol

For all you people out there adhering to a gluten free diet, drinking can be a pain in the ass sometimes. 

Before I committed to my GF diet, I LOVED stouts. Guinness was my go-to beer, and I loved going to the bars for a few "brewskies" with some buds. Now when I go out, I have to stick with cider, wine or mixed drinks. This particularly sucks when after an ultimate frisbee game when all the players want to go to the bar afterwards. When everyone else is grabbing a mug of beer, I either have to look like an alcholic by getting a mixed drink before 3pm in the afternoon, or stick with soda, which I don't like.

GF alcoholic choices are slowly expanding, however, and I am crossing my fingers and waiting for the day someone comes out with a GF stout made with buckwheat (GF, believe it or not) or some other grain.

I am going to put together a list of GF drinks and update it periodically when I come across new finds.

Beers:

Green's  http://www.glutenfreebeers.co.uk/    (This is my favorite company for beers, but is expensive)

Bards Tale Beer http://www.bardsbeer.com/

Redbridge http://www.redbridgebeer.com/

New Grist http://www.lakefrontbrewery.com/gluten_free.html

New Planet http://newplanetbeer.com/homepage/

Ciders:

Crispin Cider http://www.crispincider.com/

Strongbow http://www.strongbowcider.com/

J.K. Scrumpy Cider http://organicscrumpy.com/

Woodchuck http://www.woodchuck.com/validator.php?url=/  (If you like drinking liquid sugar...gross)

Liquors:

Bourbon

Blanton's Bourbon

Four Roses Bourbon (Corn, rye and barley based, but no mash added back into distillate.)

Vodka 

Tito's Vodka (100% corn-based, and no mash added back into the distillate) 

Ciroq Vodka (grape based)

 Tequila

Made from the blue agave plant, tequila is inherently gluten free!

With that being said, stay away from cheap brands because they may have fillers or not processed by traditional methods. Your best bet is to stick with 100% blue agave silver tequila, or know your brands. The entire Jose Cuervo line is gluten free...sweet!!

Sake 

Sake is rice-based and naturally gluten free. Beware of cheap brands and flavors, just in case.

New Vitamix!!

We just bought a Vitamix!!!!

5200 Series with the dry blender (for grinding flour) along with some freebies (cutting boards, spatulas and cooking books)

This bad ass can do everything under the sun, save pressing oils from nuts/seeds for homemade, healthy oils (still working on that one). At the demonstration, the woman made a fruit smoothie (orange, pineapple, apple, carrots, spinach, cantaloupe with seeds, blueberries and grapes), a healthy ice cream (ice, cocoa powder, organic sugar, avocado, coconut milk and...spinach!), a delicious tortilla soup (at this point, Ian and I were talking excitedly about whether or not we wanted to buy this beast, so I can't quite remember what went into it), a second fruit drink for newcomers (ginger, lemon, spinach, kale, blueberries and a bunch of other things) and finished it off with a "Green Tea" (spinach, ginger, lemon and agave syrup heated up to a nice toasty temp). This thing is amazing!!

We'll come out with cool recipes with it soon. We cannot wait to try it out!