Huevos Rancheros Sauce ToTry

Posted on by June 7, 2024

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYhnyp-xKTs&t=168s

Related Video: Refried Beans: https://youtu.be/iC5mR5s70bE

Huevos Rancheros

2 white onions
4 Roma tomatoes, cored
2 jalapenos
2 serrano peppers
6 garlic cloves (divided)
2 guajillo chilies finely chopped
Bacon grease or fry oil
Corn tortillas
Eggs
Shredded cheese, for sprinkling

Slice the onion in half, but be sure to keep the root ends intact.

Begin by preparing the vegetables: Core the tomatoes, slice the stems off the jalapeno and serrano peppers and remove the seeds, if desired to reduce the spiciness. Slice the onions in half, but keep the root intact.

Fill a large saucepan about halfway with water. Add all the vegetables and 4 of the garlic cloves. Bring to a boil for about 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are tender, adding more water if needed.

Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and let cool. Peel the outer skin of the tomatoes off and discard (soaking them in cold water beforehand, will release the skin easier). Cut the stems off the jalapeno and serrano peppers, and remove the seeds, if desired. Remove the root of the onions.

Add all the vegetables, along with the remaining 2 garlic cloves to a blender, and diced guajillo peppers and Salt and pepper, to taste. Blend until smooth.

Pour the contents in a saucepan to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and continue to cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, heat about 1 tablespoon of bacon grease or oil in a cast iron skillet. Add the tortillas and flip to coat with grease on both sides. Cook until they bubble up slightly and warm through on both sides. Be sure not to overcook until crispy.

Return to the skillet, adding more grease if needed, and add the egg(s). Fry until over-easy.

Take the tortillas and top with the egg followed by some sprinkled cheese and then the sauce. Top with more cheese. Serve immediately.

Grits – Spicy with Cheese

Posted on by July 26, 2021

This cook was inspired in October 2018 by the recipe on page 65 of my copy of Rick Bragg’s book The Best Cook in the World. That recipe was provided by his mother; a.k.a. The Best Cook. We liked them much better than the usual salt-and-a-little-black-pepper lightly seasoned dish. The pepper levels made it a bit spicy. Skip down to the Our 2020 recipe as that is how we regularly make grits to have with fried eggs for breakfast.

Continue reading →

First Kraut made at the Farm

Posted on by October 13, 2018

Bought a head of cabbage with dark green heavy outer leaves at Sessions.  Chopped it into 1/4″-1/2 ” squares and add the following as computed using the spreadsheet in DropBox. Note I messed up the measurements but decided to leave it and see how it is.

grams
Cabbage 1744.0
0.2% caraway seed = 3.5  5
0.5% yellow mustard = 8.7  3
0.7% juniper berries = 1.2
1.4% canning salt = 24.4

Fried Shrimp

Posted on by October 3, 2018

10/2/2018 – Fried about 15 12-15 count shrimp using Zatarain’s Seasoned Shrimp Fry mix in a cast iron Chicken Fryer using 3/4″ of Canola oil. Followed the directions on the box to make the batter plus added Kit’s Creole Seasoning to the batter and dry mix.

Did not worry with the thermometer for oil temp. The oil seemed hot enough so dropped in one battered shrimp and it only simmered. Turned up the burner on the Monogram (our first “deep” fry with the new stove) and it got the shrimp to frying quickly. Added three more and cooked the rest in batches.

Mary swirled them around to keep them cooking evenly and they turned out great. Looked like the ones in the restaurants and tasted better.

Reverse-Sear Steak 1st cook in the Monogram

Posted on by August 25, 2018

This first time ever to cook in new oven was a reverse sear of a Choice T-bone Steak. Put the cold steak seasoned with cracked black pepper into the small oven preheated to 250 convection bake with the oven’s probe set to 125.

Preheated grill to 400 degrees starting at the time the steak was put into the convection oven.

After about 20 minutes it moved beyond the 100-degree point. Probe shut down oven at 125.

Moved it to the preheated griddle that had been oiled with bacon fat. Seared quickly so flipped it after about 5 minutes. Then flipped it back after 6-7 min. Flipped a third time and left it on for 3-4 minutes.

Served a rare steak that was well cooked and tasted great.

Next Time – Dry brine the steak. The 125 probe setting was a little low or else the griddle needed to be preheated longer so it was actually at 400. It did not seem that hot.

 

Blackened Catfish and Grits

Posted on by August 19, 2018

8/18/2018 – This was an impromptu cook as we had been packing all day getting ready for the move to the farm and our next trip next week. I made the second trip to Home Depot and stopped by Hong Kong on the way home and bought a catfish that they cleaned and filleted. As the cast iron is all packed we cooked them in the large flat Calphalon skillet with the glass lid and that worked well.

The Filets

  1. Melted about 4 Tbs of butter with maybe 1/2 cup of olive oil in the skillet.
  2. Shook on both sides liberally our “Blackening inspired by Paul Prudhomme“
  3. Let them saute in the rather deep butter/oil with the temp not to a frying level but hot so they sizzled slowly. Turned several times and, when flaking was easy to see in the centers, we took them out.

The Grits

  1. Prepared 3-minute grits with some salt and 2T butter.
  2. When they were done, we shook on a layer of grated pepper jack cheese, stirred it in gently, then a second layer and stirred it in.

Served the filet next to the grits with a drizzle of the dark, spicy butter/oil from the skillet on the grits. The meal was very good, rich but not heavy, and not very spicy. The grits did a nice job of dampening what heat remained after the hot butter/oil.

Mexican Meatloaf No. 2

Posted on by November 22, 2019

8/15/2018 – This second effort at a Mexican flavored meatloaf included our first try at Chaurice; the Creole version of Chorizo. With 3.5 lbs of ground meat, this was a very large loaf of meat. We needed to use the frozen meats to empty the freezers before we move to the farm in 4 weeks. Also wanted leftovers to take with us to the farm next week. The Chaurice to beef was only 40% of the previous Chorizo to beef so this turned out a bit bland. Continue reading →

Baby Limas with Ham

Posted on by August 14, 2018

8/12/2018 — Baby Limas with Ham inspired by the recipe at Camellia Brand. We liked the simple lima bean style that is heavy on the ham. The recipe below is kicked up a lot from the one at Camellia byway of the Creole Seasoning we used although we left out the dash of cayenne and the tiny bit of black pepper as the small amounts are clearly in the blend. Continue reading →

BB Ribs on the gas grill then wrapped and finished in the oven

Posted on by August 13, 2018

8/12/2018 – Removed silver skin then rubbed heavy with Stubb’s Hot Pork Rub 30 minutes before the cook.

Put on the hot gas grill and seared for about 30 minutes total. There were black spots on the shiner areas. Throw oak wood chips onto the brickets several times to add the smokey flavor, hopefully.

When it had a good color I cut the rack in half, wrapped in foil with ACV and mopped on Stubb’s Spicy BBQ Sauce on the meat side. Put it into the convection oven set at 275 and the ChefWorks set to alarm at 205.