4/17/2021 – This chili turned out good and was inspired by the James Beard recipe in our copy of his book Barbeque with Beard on page 163. With all the peppers we added it turned out to have some kick but not too much for us. This is a true Texas Chili other than the addition of our canned tomatoes.
Continue readinghttps://www.rouses.com/cooking/recipes/paella/ 2/4
Ingredients
- Bunch flat-leaf parsley leaves from the garden, chopped. Reserve some for garnish.
- 1 10-oz. can ROTEL Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies, drained
- 2 cups jasmine rice
- 4 cups water, warm
- 1 pound jumbo Gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined. Wet brine for about 2 hours in about 3 cups of cold water with 1 tbsp of Kosher Salt.
- 1 pound of boneless chicken thighs, dry brined for a couple of hours then cut into 1″ cubes
- 2 chunks of our Tasso
- 4 teaspoons oregano, separated
- 1 pkg frozen mixed veggies, thawed
- Lemon wedges, for serving. From the garden then frozen but served thawed. Also, garnish with the reserved parsley.
DIRECTIONS
- Combine 1 tablespoon paprika and 2 teaspoons oregano in a small bowl. Rub the spice mix all over the chicken. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate seasoned chicken for 1 hour.
- Heat olive oil in a paella pan over medium-high heat.
- Saute the sausage until browned; remove and reserve.
- Add the chicken and brown on all sides. Add salt and freshly ground pepper. Remove from pan and reserve.
- In the same pan, saute the onions, garlic, tasso, and parsley in olive oil. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes on medium heat. Then add the Rotel and cook until the mixture caramelizes a bit and the flavors meld.
- Add the chorizo, smoked sausage, and chicken. Fold in the saffron rice and stir-fry to coat the grains. Pour in water and simmer for 10 minutes, gently moving the pan around so the rice cooks evenly and absorbs the liquid.
- Add the shrimp, stirring them into the rice. Give the paella a good shake to settle it down and let it simmer, without stirring, until the seafood is cooked and rice is barely done; i.e. about 15 minutes.
- When the paella is cooked and the rice looks fluffy and moist, turn the heat up for 40 to 80 seconds, until you can smell the rice toast at the bottom.
- Remove from heat and rest for 5 minutes. Garnish with parsley and lemon wedges.
4/1/2021 – This was a great dish inspired by the recipe at Rouses. The recipe at Rouses has more steps in the last half of the process from the point where we added the butter well before they do. All that could make a difference. We enjoyed it a lot this way and it seemed to make sense to saute the shrimp in the wine/shell brine, garlic, and peppers. It also made sense to not whip out the great flavors from the sauteed shells in the wine.
This was the first time to brine shrimp and perhaps that contributed to their being perfectly cooked. Perhaps the salt held in the water as it does with beef and pork thereby giving more latitude in the cooking time so they do not overcook so easily.
Continue reading3/31/2021 – Our Multiplying Onions and Bunching Onions in Mary’s Garden are bolting so we pickled some to for use when those are gone and the ones planted in the big garden with Piper and Olivia are still maturing. What we did, within an hour of pulling and washing them, was as follows:
Continue reading3/30/2021 – When thinking about how to use some large chicken thighs, Mary decided to roast them over onions, cabbage, and carrots. This one-dish meal turned out great and will be made again. The ingredients were assembled in a large cast-iron skillet that helped create the rich flavors of roasted chicken plus the rich flavors of the vegetables. The vegetables cooked quickly at the roasting heat under the thighs that added their melted fat to almost sear the vegetables in the bacon grease and chicken fat. Given the quick cook at the roasting temperatures the vegetables maintained some firmness; i.e. not mushy. We must give credit to Marion’s Kitchen’s “Smoky Sriracha + Lime” Chicken Marinade that contributed a lot to the dish.
This is an enhanced version of the simpler recipe here.
Continue reading3/2/2021 – Kelley and the girls are arriving in 12 days and will be here for Spring Break week. She talks often about the Rueben Sandwiches we made with my homemade Pastrami in Houston. So, this prep will follow the last one that is the post Corn Beef-Pastrami–5th Time. Hard to believe that was in 2017.
This time it is made with two small points bought trimmed from Winn-Dixie. I did a bit more trimming to remove some heavy hard fat layers but not much.
The Curing Calculator provided the following that was mixed and shaken on evenly.
- Meat – 2229 gm (5.06 lbs.)
- Cure #1 @6.25% – 5.56 grams – Measured with small accurate digital scale.
- Salt @ 2% – 39.36 grams
- Sugar at 1% – 22.29 grams
- Total – 2296.22 grams
Then mixed the following and sprinkled it evenly over the meat and on top of the above cure & seasoning.
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder – (wish I had had granulated and used 1½ T)
- ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
- 3 Bay Leaves chopped small
- 1 tsp rounded ground Coriander
- ½ tsp rounded Yellow Mustard Seeds
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1½ Tbsp cracked black pepper.
Put them into separate one-gallon zip lock bags and into the outside refrigerator to cure for two weeks; i.e. until Tuesday, March 16th.
3/16/2021 – Pastrami Rub
Prepared and rubbed on the Pastrami Rub made of:
- Part 1 – Roasted spices
- 2 Tbsp coarse ground black peppercorns
- 1 Tbsp Coriander Seed, cracked
- 1 tsp Allspice Berries, cracked
- 1 tsp Yellow Mustard Seed
Put the seed part of the rub (above) into a hot skillet and roasted while stirring until very fragrant. Then put them into a heavy glass measuring cup and added:
- Part 2
- 1 tsp heaping dry Thyme Leaves
- 1 tsp heaping of ground Bay Leaves
- 1 tsp Juniper Berries, chopped in half to release flavor and improve distribution
- 1 Tbsp dry minced Onion
- 1 Tbsp dry granulated Garlic
Mixed well then sprinkled on all sides of the two pieces of corned beef. Put the rubbed meat back in their zip-lock bags and back in the refrigerator for about 20 hours; i.e. St. Patrick’s Day. Note – Did not rinse off the initial rub/cure. Added this rub on top of the rub/cure mixture as done before.
3/17/2021 – The Smoke and Final Cook in the Oven
3/17/2021, 9:00 AM – Put them into the Weber Kettle with the SNS insert and pan and about 10 partially burning Kingsford Original Blue Bag charcoals in one end of the SNS. Added 2 small pecan limb chunks for smoke. Note – The 2017 smoke resulted in the point being “overdone” so we thought, but at the correct internal temp per the recipe being followed then.
The thinking for this cook is that previous one did not cook long enough or get hot enough to cause the colagen to break down. This cook will be at 210° to 240° bringing the internal temp up slowly.
1:00 PM – Removed the pieces from the smoker and wrapped in aluminium foil with ACV. Put them into the oven preheated to 250° with the temperature probe set to turn off at 190°.
3/14/2021 – Kelley, Piper, and Olivia arrive this afternoon to visit for Spring Break week. Like in Houston, we smoked Pork Butts knowing they will come over for dinner. This was the second time the old Masterbuilt Smoker quit during the early part of the smoke and the meat was moved to the Web Kettle.
Continue reading3/1/2021 – This “casserole” was a great dish with the chicken making the carmelized onions very rich and the sauce fantastic. It will be one of our longtime Favorites. This recipe was inspired by the one at CafeDelights.com.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 onions halved and thinly sliced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme divided
- 2 tablespoons white wine. [Next time use or add balsamic vinegar or a good red wine.]
- 2 large cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup beef broth divided (Next time add more)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 large boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground thyme
- 1 cup shredded gruyere + swiss cheese mix
- 1/2 cup freshly grated asiago cheese
- freshly grated parmesan cheese for topping
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9×12-inch baking dish.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and season with salt, pepper, and half of the thyme. saute until wilted.
- Reduce heat to medium stirring occasionally, until onions are caramelized. Add broth if the pan gets too dry, and keep stirring until the onions are browned.
- Add white wine [try with some balsamic vinegar or a good red wine] to deglaze the pan. Let cook for a minute until the sauce thickens slightly.
- Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat and let cool slightly.
- Trim thighs so they can be wrapped around the onion and cheese–see step 7. Season chicken, on both sides, with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and ground thyme.
- Spoon caramelized onions onto each thigh along with the cheese. Roll them up and secure the roll with toothpicks if necessary.
- Put the remaining caramelized onions into the baking dish. Mix in the remaining 1/4 cup of broth.
- Heat oil in the same skillet. Sear the stuffed chicken wraps until browned.
- Arrange chicken on the caramelized onions in the baking dish. These are the remaining onions that would not fit into the chicken wraps. Spoon some of the sauce in the dish over each chicken thigh. Top with remaining chopped thyme and freshly grated parmesan cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes or until fully cooked.
Next time – I thought there should be more broth. I would increase the beef broth and add the good red wine to increase the richness of the onions and broth that is put over the chicken prior to baking.
3/3/2021 – This dressing was made to go with the pastrami made for Kelley, Piper, and Olivia’s spring break visit. It was based on what we made in 2017
| Ingredient | 2017 recipe | About 2X |
| mayonnaise | 1 Cup | 2 cups |
| ketchup | 1/2 Cup ketchup | 1 cup |
| Siricha | 1/4 cup | ½ cup |
| white or red wine vinegar | 2 Tbsp | 1/3 cup |
| sugar | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp |
| garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp |
| paprika smoky spanish | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp |
| Worcestershire sauce | 2-3 shakes | 1 tbsp |
| white pepper | 1 tsp | 2 tsp |
| horseradish | 1½ Tsp | 1 tbsp |
| dill pickles chopped | 2-3 tbsp | scant ½ cup |
2/17/2021 – This great entree is truly a Mary & Tom Original stemming from having a lot of cabbage from the garden and chicken thighs thawed out. So, we decided to put the chicken over the cabbage sliced into 1″ thick pieces, add bacon on top of the chicken, then roast it. That sounded great and it turned out that way.
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