Monday, January 23, 2012

Yummm...!

Brittany and I have lately gotten into the habit of trying to recreate meals that we love from restaurants and the like. Chipotle burrito bowls have been pretty successful so far.
However; even greater than Chipotle bowls in the pantheon of brilliant lunch bowls, are the perfect balance of flavors and textures that culminate in the Yumm bowl.

If you are unfamiliar;Yumm bowls (from Cafe Yumm!) consist of brown rice, black beans, salsa, tomatoes, olives, cheese, avocado, sour cream, cilantro, and the secret, magical ingredient that transforms this average health-foody dish into culinary crack: Yumm! Sauce.

Now, in true Portlander  fashion; the first experience I had with this dish came from a local food cart called The Whole Bowl that was located on 12th and Glisan in the Pearl.  Since that time (2004) they have established a permanent location on Hawthorne and 44th and another one downtown somewhere. Same meal, more local feel. Worth checking out.

Anyway, enough chat, lets get to the sauce:
You can buy bottles of the stuff at Cafe Yumm! for something like $15 a bottle. Or, for significantly less you can make it in minutes.
I adapted this recipe from one I found on Peas and Thank You

1/4 cup almonds (or almond meal for smoother sauce)
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (bulk section at fred meyers)
2 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano (I didn't add this because I didn't have any at the time)
1/2 tsp dried cilantro
2-3 dashes hot sauce (tapatio for me)

Blend the almonds, oil, chickpeas, and water until smooth.  Then add everything else and blend until uniform.  If you want thinner sauce add a little more water.  I don't remember exactly what oregano tastes like so I'm not sure what the difference would be if I'd added it, I plan to try next time.  This stuff is so easy to make, it's easy to keep the ingredients on hand.  The recipe I read said this stuff will keep 7-10 days in the fridge but all the ingredients are dry or canned and will keep forever.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

It snowed...

So I made verde sauce.

I've been wanting to make anything at all using tomatillos ever since I first saw them in the produce section. Intriguing little green, paper-covered tomato looking things. And finally, as I was walking around Whole Foods -I honestly don't shop there often, it was just the closest store at the time- looking for fajita supplies, I saw them and decided now was the time, so I looked up "tomatillo recipes" on my personal telecommunication device and bought a handful ($4.99/lb at whole foods).


This is the recipe I found on allrecipe.com for "salsa de tomatillo" from user SABRINATEE:

10 tomatillos, husked
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 jalapeños, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

I halved this and also added a pretty good squirt of lime juice because, well, why not. Though the tomatillos end up giving the sauce most of its sour flavor anyway.

The cooking part is super easy; boil te tomatillos about 10-15 minutes until they just start to burst, then throw everything in the blender and blend until it's the consistency you want, hen taste and season as you like. Just for fun I sautéed he jalapeño a bit before I cut it up to see if I couldn't give it a smoky flavor. I can't really tell if it worked. Anyway, the stuff tastes pretty alright, but not as good as the stuff at Muchas Gracias. I look forward to tweaking it more in the future.


[UPDATE: this sauce combined with some Worcestershire sauce, more lime juice, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to make marinade for the best GD fajita steak I've ever tasted.] 

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Healthy(?) cookies!

Well, as some of you may heard, Brit loves to eat cookies. Unfortunately, though; her diet is a bit restrictive in the baked goods department. Fortunately, the current phase does allow for a certain amount of "slow carbs" which are things like whole wheat, quinoa, brown rice, yams, etc. So we decided to try whipping up some low cal/carb cookies.


For comparison sake I will list the recipe as written, and then list it as we altered it.

From the back of a bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips:

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

What we did:

2 cups whole grain oat flour (ground up oatmeal)
1/4 cup flax meal (ground up flax seeds) mmm... Omega-3s
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp olive oil (we ran out of butter and a website said this is equivalent to 1/2 cup butter)
1 cup stevia extract (no calories!)
1/2 cup sucanat (because we had it laying around so why no, I'm not convinced that it's healthier than normal sugar)
3 tsp vanilla extract (because I always use more than is called for)
2 eggs
3 tbsps cocoa powder
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup sunflower seeds

-I'd like to interrupt here and say I just tried my first bite, fresh out of the oven, and OH MY GOD. So good. So, so good.-

Preheat oven to 375 deg
Mix flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
Blend butter and sugar until creamy, add vanilla and eggs (and cocoa).
Slowly add flour mixture, then chocolate chips and nuts.
Bake 10-12 minutes.
EAT.

Here's the thing though; recently our oven has gone to shit and takes 45 minutes to reach 375. Bullshit. This time it kinda worked out though because one thing I learned working in a restaurant is that refrigerating cookie dough before baking makes for much prettier, less puddle-y, cookies. So we had the time to spare. Also, I LOVE baking on parchment paper, then you don't have to clean the baking sheet s or destroy the cookies while transferring them to a cooling rack. And yeah, as I interjected above; these things are BOMB. They are lighter and less dense than normal cookies, most likely because of the stevia which is eerily light-weight; a 10oz bag has the same sweetness as 5lbs of sugar.
I'm not exactly sure how much healthier they are than normal cookies, but they are certainly lower calorie and higher in heart-healthy oils. I highly recommend them. And so does Brittany.


[UPDATE: after cooling and getting a little drier, these guys have gotten fairly crumbly, but still amazingly delicious.]

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Take that the establishment

For dinner tonight, Brittany made us chipotle style burrito bowls. (I assembled my own, hers is prettier)


Also mine kind of ended up almost more like a Yumm! bowl.  They consisted up brown rice, black beans, corn, street-style taco chicken, pico, avocado, cheese, and greek yogurt.  Brit added picante sauce. I tried to add lettuce but my bowl was too full.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

looks like pudding, tastes like pudding, must be...

This blows my mind; a dessert recipe straight out of Brittany's diet book.  It's crazy because it actually tastes incredibly similar to normal chocolate pudding, maybe just a little less sweet.

Chocolate/Avocado pudding

1 avacado
2 tablespoons coco powder
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend it all together till smooth.
Stuff your face.

Super healthy and tastes amazing, literally like chocolate pudding and avocado. Each flavor distinct in every bite and they mingle brilliantly.  Enjoy.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Sausage grinding, and further adventures at at Macy's

This was a particular exciting endeavor because I got to use CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!!1!
 
I will never again shop at Macy's; this is the third kitchenaid mixer I've owned since Christmas and the second grinder attachment.  Macy's does everything wrong.
Once again, I used a recipe from Charcuterie; "Da Bomb" breakfast sausage according to the authors.

5 pounds pork shoulder butt (available at most butchers, most likely behind the counter)(I always use
     Sheridan Fruit on MLK because they are awesome)
1 1/2 ounces kosher salt (3 tablespoons)
5 tablespoons peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
5 tablespoons tightly packed finely chopped sage
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground white or black pepper (I used half of each, but more on that later)
1 cup ice water

There is a picture of all my ingredients in my last post.

The pork shoulder I bought ended up being 5.5 pounds or so. Your first step is to dice it up into chunks that will fit into your grinder; mine were roughly 3/4".  While you're dicing, try to pull as much sinew and stringy bits as you can while leaving the fat.  I didn't do this and had some issues with sinew getting tangled up in my grinder.  Be forewarned though, dicing 5 pounds of meat takes FOR. EVER. My arm was sore by the end of it. 
Next prep all your seasonings; peeling and grating that much ginger is also a bit time consuming and messy, but it smells amazing. I love ginger.  Also note that that the recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of pepper, not tablespoons.  Oops.  I was wondering why mine is a touch warm on the tongue.  And, like I mentioned, I used a mix of white and black just for fun.
Once all your ingredients are prepped, toss everything except the water together until it's pretty well blended and stick it in the fridge for anywhere from an hour to over night. Again, see the pictures in my last post.
Everything I have read about using a meat grinder so far (Charcuterie and user reviews), has emphasized the importance of keeping everything cold prior to and during grinding; if the fat gets too warm, it will start to liquefy leading to sausage with a grainy texture.  For me this meant freezing the grinder die and blade prior to use and, as pictured, putting the mixing bowl in an ice bath while grinding.
While grinding,  and this applies to any meat grinding, you want the meat to come out in a wormy kinda texture, if it comes out like a blob and sticks to the die; you've got sinew tangled in the blade/die and need to clean it out.  I guess I should point out that I used the small die (1/8" holes) for my sausage.
Once your sausage is all ground; stick it back under the mixer, add the ice-cold water and mix it for about a minute or so until it has an even texture.
Now just saute up a bit to test the seasoning and you're done! yummm
I'll post a picture of it in all its cooked up glory as soon as I cook some again, but I'm full at the moment.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Breakfast!!!

Tomorrow, this will become wonderful, wonderful sausage.



Dicing five pounds of pork shoulder butt is a pain in the ass.

Also, we have a dog! This is Marty McFly.  Bobby Brown is a little testy at the moment.