With St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching I have been thinking back to my trip to Ireland quite a bit. I had such a great time that I wanted to relive a little piece of it, through food of course! I was chosen to be a part of Foodbuzz’s 24×24 for March so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make some Irish treats. I invited my Dad, boyfriend and Aunt who all came on the trip with me to Ireland as well as my grandpa, who grew up in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and my mom, who didn’t get to do the trip with us. I honestly was a bit nervous about this undertaking, I didn’t want to disappoint my grandpa or mess up a traditional meal!
We began with a mini traditional Irish breakfast for an appetizer. An Irish breakfast consists of black and white pudding, bangers (sausage), rashers (bacon), a fried egg, baked beans, and a fried tomato. Because this was just an appetizer, I used quail eggs instead of traditional eggs. I found the black and white pudding, bangers and rashers on foodireland.com, a great website for Irish food products.
A traditional Irish breakfast is quite the meal. In my grandfather’s words “you should eat a good breakfast, because you don’t know when you’ll eat again.” My appetizer version still included all parts of an Irish breakfast in much smaller portions. I personally am not a fan of black pudding or bangers, but I love the rest of an Irish breakfast and was so happy to have this as an appetizer.
The main course was a beef stew. I used my Irish stew recipe I made last year, but substituted beef instead of lamb and omitted the peas.
The Guinness adds such a nice flavor to this stew. I suggest making this ahead of time and freezing it. Stew always tastes better when the broth has had time to thicken.
I also made some Brown Soda Bread to eat with the Irish breakfast and the stew. Soda bread contains flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, butter and buttermilk. My version also had raisins and caraway seeds for extra flavor.
Soda bread is traditionally served with Irish butter and/or jam (I’m a fan of black currant jam, yum!)
We were pretty darn full from the stew and Irish breakfast but there was still dessert to be had. I went off of the traditional for dessert, making a Black and Tan brownie based off of a Cooking Light recipe, but made them in a 9×9 pan and cooked them for 45 minutes. I also cut them into huge pieces, making 9 total.
They were served with a scoop of ice cream and some Irish coffee and tea. The phrase Black and Tan comes from the nickname given to English soldiers that came to Ireland to suppress the 1916 Easter Rising, which eventually became the name of a half Guinness and half Bass beer in America. Black and Tans really aren’t popular in Ireland, but they still make a cute idea for a brownie! (I decided these yummy brownies needed their own post. Check it out here)
My family seemed to really enjoy the meal. The Irish breakfast was a big hit but I think the Irish soda bread was the real star of the night. My grandpa even requested to take some home with him. I am glad we were given the chance to sit down, enjoy some Irish food, and talk about Ireland again. Now, to plan our next trip over there…
I have been a part of a food swap for about 6 months now, and I am already running low on ideas. As I was frantically looking for an idea, I realized no one had made stuffed peppers yet, win! Stuffed peppers are a perfect, hearty meal for relatively little cost. They are pretty adaptable and can honestly be made with whatever you want. To make vegetarian, sub in beans or just omit the ground beef all together.
Ingredients (this makes 10 stuffed peppers)
10 peppers
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
3 onions
3 garlic cloves, minced
2.5 lbs ground beef
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1 can diced tomatoes
½ teaspoon each of basil, oregano and parsley (dried)
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper, to taste
5 cups cooked rice
½ cup grated Parmesan
Cut off top of peppers, removing the seeds and membranes. Dice the edible parts of the tops of the peppers.
Add the whole peppers to a pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove from water and set aside.
Add the butter and olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Add the onion, diced peppers, and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes.
Add the ground beef, stirring to break up the meat.
Cook until browned. Add the Worcestershire, diced tomatoes, and tomato puree, stirring to combine.
Season with oregano, basil, parsley, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cooked rice and parmesan cheese.
Stuff peppers with mixture, sprinkling with more parmesan cheese if desired.
Because I made these for a swap, I froze the peppers at this stage.
To cook, thaw completely then bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes.
I am having way too much fun trying out all these new meats through Arganica. This week I thought I’d try to conquer elk. Elk has a similar taste to beef and is low in both fat and cholesterol. I thought it was another perfect excuse to use my slow cooker, and to invent my own barbecue sauce! I decided to make a Chipotle-Guinness barbecue sauce.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium sized yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (~12 oz) bottle of Guinness
1 (14.5 oz) can tomato puree
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon of the sauce from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo
This weekend I was given quite the culinary challenge: make a meal for ten people without breaking the bank. I would be feeding everyone at the beach, so my mind immediately went to Shish Kabobs with Rice (I want summer and barbecues to be here so badly!). This is a great option for vegetarians as well, always a plus.
Living in the city does not mean you can’t enjoy this recipe. If you have a little indoor grill, that will work just fine. Due to the poor weather we had this weekend, we actually ended up broiling the shish kabobs in the oven, which worked just fine.
Ingredients (serves 10):
3 pints cherry tomatoes
1 bag of pearl onions, peeled (quick tip below)
2 green bell peppers
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
2 8 oz packages of whole mushrooms (I used cremini)
1 large zucchini
2 large summer squash
5 lbs top sirloin steak, cut into cubes
10 cups chicken stock (ideally, use vegetable stock to keep veggies truly vegetarian)
5 cups rice
Ingredients for marinade:
1 tablespoon salt
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 heaping tablespoon of the following dried spices: thyme, basil, oregano, marjoram
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 2/3 cup red wine (an inexpensive table wine is fine)
Lasagna. It seems like such a simple dish that will result in many freezable meals (9 to be exact). Always looking for a way to have already-prepared lunch or dinner options, I decided this weekend was the time to conquer the classic Italian food. I mean, how much work can layering different ingredients be?
Three hours later, I ended up with this:
Not too shabby. Just a long process!
Ingredients for Lasagna:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 2 tablespoons for the lasagna
1 tablespoon each of dried: thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary and parsley
The tomato sauce takes a good hour itself, so start this before anything else. While making the sauce, leave the milk on the counter so it can reach room temperature. Also leave out the frozen spinach to thaw.
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Add cans of tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and the rest of the spices (bay leaves through parsley). Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Remove bay leaves and remove pot from heat.
Feel free to use just some store-bought sauce. I personally can’t do it. Who told all the sauce companies that sugar should be a main ingredient? Gross. So yeah, the 25% of me that is Italian absolutely cannot handle sauce out of a jar. I digress…
Next, to make the béchamel sauce, melt 5 tablespoons of butter over medium heat in another pot. When the butter is melted, add the flour and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes.
um. “smooth”? yeah, I don’t know what happened
Gradually add in milk, whisking constantly to prevent any lumps. Continue to simmer and whisk over medium heat. Make sure the heat isn’t up too high; you don’t want the milk to burn! Stir until thick and creamy, about 10 minutes.
it should coat the back of a wooden spoon, like this
Remove from heat and add to tomato sauce. Stir until well combined. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
While the sauce is cooling, cook the lasagna according to the package directions. Lay lasagna pieces out individually on a tin foil so that they don’t stick together.
In a sauté pan, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When almost smoking, add the ground beef and season with salt and pepper. Break up large clumps to make sure all parts of the meat are browned, until there is no more pink meat. Remove from heat and drain any excess fat. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
In a medium sized bowl, mix the ricotta and eggs. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
To assemble (in a lasagna pan):
line bottom with lasagna sheets
add 1/3 of bechamel sauce
add all of the ricotta mixture
add all of the spinach
another layer of pasta sheets
add all of the meat
add half of the mozzarella cheese (1 bag)
add another 1/3 of the bechamel sauce
one last layer of pasta sheets
add the last of the bechamel sauce
top with remaining mozzarella cheese
add Parmesan cheese and thin slices of 2 tbsp of butter
To cook, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the lasagna pan on top, cover with tin foil and place on the middle rack of the oven. Bake until the top is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for another 15 minutes.
woo! finally done!
Allow to cool if you plan on putting into individual containers (as I did). I find it hard to believe that something with this much cheese, pasta, and sauce could honestly taste bad. But seeing how much not-so-good-for-you things went into this, I think I’d sub in some “less” bad ingredients next time (skim milk, partially skim cheese, low fat ricotta, ground turkey).
Although this was quite the task, I think it was totally worth it. I’ve already had this for lunch one day this week and have plenty more stored away in my freezer for future meals. Yum.
There were a couple of parts to this recipe that made me nervous to try it out: working with fresh ginger and using the broiler. The latter ended up being the more difficult part, but that was due to my all-encompassing fear of burning the beef tenderloin steaks. Overall though, this dish was a lot easier than I made it out to be. I followed this recipe almost exactly, but the original is linked here.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons lower-sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free
1/4 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (such as Lee Kum Kee or Huey Fong)
3 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks, trimmed (1 inch thick)
Cooking spray
1/8 teaspoon salt
Hoisin sauce and the chili garlic sauce can be found in the Asian section of your grocery store. Getting to a supermarket for me is kind of a pain but I was able to find the sauce in my corner store.
Before doing anything, preheat your broiler to high. If you’re like me and have zero clue what the broiler even is, chances are it’s within your oven and you just need to press the “broil” setting. Be sure to remove everything from the oven before turning it on.
Broiling is basically the opposite of grilling—the heat source is coming from above instead of below. Because the heat is so high, really keep an eye on anything you are broiling; it can burn very very quickly. Also be sure to have an oven mitt that can withstand high temperatures. The broiler may cause some smoke so be sure to turn your exhaust fan on during cooking. Ok, time to actually start cooking…
Ginger root is much easier to work with than I imagined. It looks so intimidating but I’m glad to have this ingredient on hand—it can be used to treat nausea and is also known to have anti-inflammatory properties. The root can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated or frozen for long term use.
Boo! …See? Very intimidating
To work with ginger root, use a peeler to peel off the bark-like outer layer for the area you’ll be using. You will begin to smell ginger almost immediately. Yum.
Cut the peeled area off. You can either mince the ginger root with a knife or use a grater. As a warning, the root has a lot of juice to it and can get a bit slippery so be careful of your fingers. I may or may not have lost a piece of ginger when it slipped out of my hands and few across my kitchen. Whoops.
Fresh Grated Ginger
To prepare the hoisin glaze, combine the hoisin sauce, ginger, honey, soy sauce and chili garlic sauce in a small bowl using a whisk to combine. Set this aside.
Hoisin Glaze
The original recipe suggested putting the steaks on a foil-lined broiler pan. I somehow ran out of foil, so I just put them on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray but for cleaning purposes, I’d suggest using the foil. Sprinkle the steaks with salt.
Place the pan into the oven 5 inches from the heat (so 5 inches from the top of the oven… probably around the middle rack). Cook for 2 minutes and turn over. Broil for another 2 minutes and turn steaks over again.
Not that appetizing yet. Just wait…
Brush steaks with half of the glaze and broil for one minute.
Looking better…
Turn the steaks over and brush with the remaining glaze and broil for 2 minutes or until desired degree of doneness.
So, I ended up putting mine in for a good 5ish more minutes, turning the steaks half way through. They came out a bit too rare for me with the original time suggested, but I think this is really up to the person cooking it. I was so fearful that it was going to burn that every 2 minutes I was checking on the steaks, which probably wasn’t helping the whole cooking process.
When it was finally cooked to my liking though, this was one tasty dinner. When making the glaze, I was afraid it might be a bit on the spicy side but it actually ended up having an almost caramelized taste to it, which was a pleasant surprise.
The hoisin glaze would be great on a number of different proteins: chicken, salmon, perhaps even scallops. Using the broiler still makes me a bit nervous though, so I may consider whipping up a batch of this glaze for use on the grill, if it ever warms up in Philadelphia (today is March 28—almost April—and the high is 45. Super.) I hope you enjoy this meal with less stress about broiling than me!