Sausage & Beans – Gordon Ramsay

January 21, 2015

This recipe takes it’s simple inspiration from Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food book.  I’ve changed a lot of the pieces, but it’s basically sausage, beans, and tomatoes.  And as simple as that is, it’s quite amazing.  We’ve repeatedly eaten this meal and it still shocks at how damn good it is.

INGREDIENTS

4 Aidell’s Cajun Style Andouille Sausage (whole or chopped into bite size chunks, as you prefer).

Olive Oil

2-3 Fresh Thyme Sprigs

2 sliced cloves of garlic

1 14 oz can of pinto beans (drained)

1 14 oz can of organic chipped tomatoes

Pinch of Sugar

Salt

Pepper

DIRECTIONS

Pan fry the sausage in the olive oil, adding the garlic and thyme, cooking 3-4 minutes.  Don’t burn the garlic!  It’s easy to do.  Then add the can of beans (drained) and the can of tomatoes. Add the pinch of sugar.  Bring to a simmer and cover, cooking 10 minutes.  Add some salt and pepper to taste.

VARIATIONS

You can try any type of sausage.  The Aidell’s are precooked which makes them easier to cook, but any type would do.  Gordon Ramsay uses Toulouse sausages.  You can also use any ground thyme (use ½ teaspoon) and chopped minced garlic (1 tablespoon).  You could even use fresh tomatoes if you wanted, (2-3 I think would be right).

Chicken with Almond, Mint and Cayenne

This recipe is inspired by Raghaven Iyer in his book 660 Curries.  He calls it Almond Chicken with a Yogurt-Mint Sauce.  You’ll find it on page 123-124 of his book.   This recipe was cooked a day after the Chicken with Fresh Curry Leaves and Tamarind recipe. 

The basic idea to take from these recipes, which is a core element really of Indian Cooking, is to mix a variety of spices with your yogurt marinade.  In this case we are mixing almonds and cayenne and cilantro along with coriander, mustard and fennel seeds.  Of course we include garlic, ginger and salt.  The mint is added at the end, much like the Curry Leaves were added later in the Chicken with Fresh Curry Leaves recipe.  The Chicken with Fresh Curry leaves used yellow split peas instead of almonds, and used a mixture of black peppercorns, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, and chilis (instead of just cayenne pepper). 

You take your basic yogurt and experiment.  Add different spices prepared in different ways.  Sometimes you just you ground spices from Spice Islands, sometimes you use whole spices, sometimes you toast the whole spices, sometimes you toast them then grind them.  Try different combinations.  The first recipe tries tamarind and curry leaves and the second uses almonds and mint leaves, with some coconut.

INGREDIENTS

·         3-4 pounds of boneless chicken thighs. You’ve heard me talk about this before, and I’ll do it again.  Don’t use white meat. 

·         1 cup of whole plain yogurt

·         ½ cup of silvered blanched almonds.

·         8-10 cloves of garlic

·         3 lengthwise slices of fresh ginger about an inch long each.

·         1 tablespoon of coriander seeds.

·         2 teaspoons of yellow or black mustard seeds

·         1 teaspoon of fennel seeds

·         2 teaspoons of salt

·         2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper

·         ¼ cup of chopped cilantro

·         3-4 tablespoons of Ghee

·         1 red onion

·         2 fresh or dried bay leaves

·         ½ cup of firmly packed fresh mint leaves finely chopped (it turned out to be one whole package of them from the market).

INSTRUCTIONS

1.   Add the yogurt, almonds, garlic, ginger, coriander, mustard, fennel, salt and cayenne to a blender jar and blend up into a thick paste. Transfer toasted split peas to a blender and add the yogurt, peppercorns, salt turmeric, garlic, cardamom pods, dried chilies, and cinnamon stick.  Blend until it’s a thick paste.  Then pour into a bowl and fold in the cilantro with a spatula.  Then add the chicken, coating all sides very well, then cover and refrigerate for as long as you can, up to overnight.

2.   When you are read, heat the ghee till very hot and then brown the chicken pieces (reserving the marinade for use later), 2-3 minutes a side, turning them over.  Set the chicken aside.

3.   Add some more ghee if there is no oil, and then add in the onion and bay leaves and cook, scraping up the wonderful brown chicken bits for 3-4 minute.  Add some water, anywhere from ¼ to ½ a cup.  I take water and spray it into the blender jar, and swirl it around, to get the rest of the marinade, and use that as the water.  After the onions have cook a bit 6-10 minutes), add in the rest of the marinate, swishing some more water if you need it.  Cook 2-3 minutes more.

4.   Add the chicken back in, and simmer for a while.  Chicken thighs stay tender so there is no need to worry about over cooking it.  Just simmer till you feel it’s done.

5.   Remove chicken, then add in mint to the sauce.

6.   Serve chicken over a pile of rice, scooping sauce on top.  

There will be a delicious yogurt cayenne mint combination in your mouth.  Reheats well the next day!

Chicken with Fresh Curry Leaves and Tamarind

This recipe is inspired by Raghaven Iyer in his book 660 Curries.  He calls it Yogurt-Marinated Chicken in a Black Peppercorn Sauce – Chettinad Kozhi.  You’ll find it on page 122-123 of his book.   I had to order a few special items for this recipe, and I got them on Amazon.  They are Fresh Curry Leaves and Tamarind Paste (or Concentrate).

The taste is EXOTIC.  The family loved it and gave it 4-5 stars out of the gate.  There were some questions of texture by Asher, but I have some solutions to that if you care to use those below.  Overall, a very different taste and something that really spoke to the emotions.  Had dinner with my Dad, Asher, Riley, and Britney.  Jennie and Amethyst ate later upstairs.

INGREDIENTS

·         3-4 pounds of boneless chicken thighs. You’ve heard me talk about this before, and I’ll do it again.  Don’t use white meat. 

·         2 tablespoons of yellow split peas (chana dal) or Pidgeon peas. 

·         ½ cup of whole plain yogurt

·         2 teaspoons of black peppercorns

·         1½ teaspoons of salt

·         ¼ teaspoon of turmeric

·         6 cloves of fresh garlic or 3 tablespoons of minced garlic

·         6 green cardamom pods

·         3 small dried red chilies (serrano, cayenne, red Thai), stems removed.

·         1 cinnamon stick 3 inches long

·         2 tablespoons of Ghee

·         1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds (you can use black seeds as well)

·         1 red onion chopped

·         12-15 large fresh curry leaves

·         2 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chilies OR 2 fresh Anaheim chilies.

·         1 teaspoon of tamarind paste or concentrate

·         ¼ cup of shredded coconut dried, unsweetened or sweetened, reconstituted with 1 cup of boiling water.

INSTRUCTIONS

1.   Preheat a small skillet over medium high heat.  Add the split pease and cook, stirring them constantly or shaking the skillet every few seconds, until they are reddish brown in patches and smell nutty.  1-3 minutes.  It was about 1 and half minutes when I do it.

2.   Transfer toasted split peas to a blender and add the yogurt, peppercorns, salt turmeric, garlic, cardamom pods, dried chilies, and cinnamon stick.  Blend using a spatula to push the stuff down.

TEXTURE NOTE: This creates a really gritty sauce, with pieces of peppercorn and cinnamon stick.  There are two ways to avoid this.  1 some water to the mixture or more yogurt so the sauce fills the bottom of the blender better.  The other way is to use ground spices: ground pepper, garlic paste, ground cardamom, ground cinnamon.

3.   Marinate the chicken in the marinated for as long as you can.

4.   Heat the ghee in a large pot.  Add the mustard seeds and cover, letting the seeds start popping like popcorn, about 30 seconds.  Add onions, curry leaves, and Anaheim Chilies and cook till soft and transparent, 6-10 minutes.

5.   Add the chicken pieces, marinade and all.  Cook.

6.   Meanwhile, combine the tamarind paste with 1 cup of water in a small bowl, stirring to dissolve the paste.  Pour this murky brown water over the meat. 

7.   Simmer for 10-30 minutes.

8.   Still in the coconut and serve.

Cult of Yex - Second Cataclysm

On a totally related note, here is my first published novel!

http://www.amazon.com/Cult-Yex-Saga-Second-Cataclysm-ebook/dp/B00QMIH5UC

Jason's Enchiladas

Jason's Enchiladas

Tonight (November 23rd, 2014) I decided to try my hand at Enchilada's without any recipe.  Really wing it.  Turns out my winging it was fantastic, and far better than I anticipated.  So here is the recipe which I will use again.

INGREDIENTS

Meat

2-4 lbs of cheap chuck roast (Cheaper the better really)

Spice Mixture #1 (Mix to your tastes)
Spice Island Chili Powder
New Mexico Dried Chili Powder
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Fajita Season Mix I had
Ground Cumin

Sauce

2-3 Tablespoons of Saffron Oil
1/2 stick of Butter
2 Tablespoons of Chopped Garlic
2 onions

Spice Mixture #2 (Mix to your tastes)
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Oregano (lighly)
Spice Islands Chili Powder
New Mexico Dried Chili Powder

1 Can of Crushed Tomatoes (28 oz).
Water

1 Package of New Mexico Dried Chilis
Water

Enchiladas

Canola or Vegetable Oil
Corn Tortillas
4 Cheese Mexican Shredded Cheese
Fresh chopped Cilantro
Limes (cut in wedges)
Sour Cream


INSTRUCTIONS

Meat

Liberally cover both sides of the meat in Spice Mixture #1.  Then heat  2-4 tablespoons of Safflower oil in the bottom of a pressure cooker until very hot.  Brown the meat on both sides, maybe 2-3 minutes a side. Add 6 cups of hot water, not quite covering the meat, then seal it and set it to 1 pressure bare and cook for 3 hours.  Just let it cook slowly and soften up that meat.

When done remove from the heat, open pressure cooker with lukewarm tap water, remove meat and put onto a cutting board.  Liberally sprinkle meat with more Spice Island Chili Powder.  Reserve broth for the sauce below.  Chop meat up with a knife or fork.

Sauce

In a large pot heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil and then put in half a stick of butter.  When melted add the garlic and stir and then add the onions.  Add spice mixture #2. Cook until the onions are soft, and then add can of crushed tomatoes.  Swirl in some water (maybe half a can).  Bring to a boil and simmer
for 1-2 hours.

At the same time put the entire package of dried New Mexico Chili Pods (whole) into a big pot of boiling water and boiled them for a good 2 hours. I probably over did this, but it didn't really matter.  Drain them, and remove the stems and most of the seeds and throw the pods into the pot of tomato sauce.  

The sauce cooks for probably a total of 3 hours, 2 by itself, then another hour with the pods.  Keep it at a simmer and stir it often.  It will get really thick.

Take 1 ladle of sauce and 2 ladles of broth and put into a blender. Liquefy for a while, then pour into a strainer over a bowl, using a spoon to press the juice through and keep out any pulpy stuff.  Keep doing this process until all the tomato sauce is blended.  Pour the blended and strained tomato sauce (which is a good orange color looking like either Enchilada Sauce or Tomato Soup depending on the way you see things) back into the big pan, and added the rest of the broth and then taste it.  It might be SPICY HOT but don't worry.  Add some flour, bring to a boil, and simmer for a while.

Enchiladas

Set your oven for 400 degrees (maybe 375 if you are lower altitude, I am 1 mile high).

Get a flat bottom pan, fill it with Canola oil, heat it till very hot, and then cook the corn tortillas about 20 seconds a side.  Dry on paper towels.

Put a little sauce in a big glass casserole dish, spreading it around on the bottom.  Take some of the meat and tear it apart if necessary put it into the cooked enchilada, and roll it up.  Put the rolled enchilada in the casserole dish on the sauce.  Keep doing this until you are out of meat (you might need 2 casserole dishes).

Then liberally cover with cheese.  I like a LOT of cheese, you probably would want less, but I used a lot.  

Bake for 10 minutes or until top of enchiladas with cheese is golden brown.

Garnish with cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and sour cream!  

Indian Spaghetti Sauce

Indian Spaghetti Sauce

This is a recipe I use for spaghetti that is based on my traditional version, but has a few 'Indian' influences.  for what it's worth, this is considered my families favorite version.

INGREDIENTS
1 lb of ground hamburger
Olive Oil & Butter
1 Onion
Mushrooms (Optional Addition)
2 Packages of Johnsonville Hot Italian Sausage (or another hot Italian sausage brand)

SPICE MIXTURE

Vary the size of your handful (by handful I mean palmful) as you see fit.

• 1 Handful of Onion Powder
• 1 Handful of Garlic Powder
• 1 Handful of Black Pepper
• 1 Handful of White Pepper
• 1 Handful of Salt
• 1 Handful of Thyme
• 1 Handful of Oregano
• 1 Handful of Garam Masala
• 1 Handful of Chili Powder
• 1 Handful of Cumin
• 1 Handful of Ground Coriander

2 large 28 oz cans of Crushed Tomatoes SW Premium

2 large 28 oz cans of Hunts Tomato Sauce

1 Cup of Heavy Cream
1 Handful of Kasoori Methi (dried Fenugreek Leaves)


DIRECTIONS

1. Get a pound or pound and a half of hamburger.  Brown it, and drain it to get off all the fat.
2. Add 3-4 tablespoons of Olive Oil and 2-3 tablespoons of butter into the pot and heat till hot.
3. Add 1 onion chopped and a huge spoon of chopped garlic.  I like a lot of garlic.  Cook for five minutes. You can optionally add a lot of mushrooms at this point.  Fresh, or canned, either way.  I like a lot of them myself. 
4. Add drained hamburger back into the pot.
5. Add two packages of Johnsonville Hot Italian Sausage cut up.  There are a lot of different Hot Italian Sausages out there.  You can try different ones if you like, but this is the one I always return to.  I encourage you to find the one that works the best for you, because it's vitally important to have the right one for your specific tastes.  
6. Now add the spice mixture. 
7. Stir this all up and very well and mix and cook for 10-15 minutes till the sausage is cooked all the way through.
8. Then add 2 large 28 oz cans of Crushed Tomatoes SW Premium
9. Then add 2 large 28 oz cans of Hunts Tomato Sauce - *Again, the types of sauce you use is up to you.  Experiment.
10. Then cook it... as long as you can.  I have done it as short as 45 minutes, but 2-3 hours is great and 4-5 is even better.  If you cook it longer, you might want to add some water or broth.
11. At the end, add 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of heavy cream. This just smooths the whole thing out a bit, and turns it a bit orange.  You can add even more, say up to 1 cup if you want to make it creamier.  
12. Finally, add a small handful of Kasoori Methi leaves (dried fenugreek leaves)  Still, and it's ready to eat over pasta!!!

Hamburgers Indian Style

Hamburgers - Indian Style

I've made these hamburgers many times and they are worthy of joy and enlightenment.  I really hope you enjoy them.  They are really special.  Instead of using ketchup we make a special Red Pepper Chutney Sauce.  Do NOT skip the Chutney. It's what really makes it take off!  You'll use it for all sorts of different meals, not just the hamburgers.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons of chickpea flour (also called gram flour or besan)*
• 3 lbs of ground beef or ground lamb
• 1 bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
• 3 teaspoons of cumin powder
• 3 teaspoons of ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper
• 2 teaspoons of sea salt
• 2 lightly beaten eggs

*If you don't have chickpea flour, just add 1 cup of bread crumbs.

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Roast the chickpea flour in a small frying pan over high heat till it turns brown. Stir often.

2. Put the chickpea flour into a bowl and add the spices: cayenne, cumin, coriander, pepper, and salt.  Mix well.

3.  Chop the Cilantro

4.  Crack open and lightly beat the 2 eggs.

5.  Add the cilantro and the mixed chickpea flour and spices and the eggs into the ground beef, mixing well with your hands.  

6.  Form the hamburger into 1/2 pound patties.  Grill them on the grill to medium rare.  Take them off and cut them in half.  Add them to pita pockets, adding Feta Cheese and a LOT of Red Pepper Chutney.  

They will utterly amaze you.  Unlike any hamburgers you've ever had before, and I'm convinced you'll think you had died and gone to heaven.