Beer Brats- Bratwurst boiled in beer!

Bratwurst is delicious on its own, but even better when simmered in beer, spices, and plenty of onions!  Full disclosure:  I did not make the bratwursts themselves.  I've never made sausages by hand, ever.  But these were raw, fresh brats someone else made.  I can live with it.

Mmm, breath bombs

This method is super easy!  All you do is combine beer, sliced onion, and a pinch of some spices.  Bring to a boil, add your brats.  Reduce heat, simmer brats.  Sear cooked brats.  Put on buns.  Add the cooked onions.  Voila!

2 cans beer, 1 sliced onion, spices.

Maybe snag a couple sips of beer before pouring them in.  You are the kitchen master, after all.

Not so appetizing.  Just give it time...

Plop in your brats once the beer mixture boils.  Cook them on medium for 20 minutes, flipping halfway.

Cast iron forever!

Once the brats are cooked, remove them and sear in another pan- I like cast iron but any kind will work!  Keep the beer/onion mixture on low heat.  Just a few minutes on each side and you're ready to eat!

Finished brats waiting on their onions

Place the brats in buns and top with onion mixture.  I like to serve with spicy brown mustard, but that's just me.  If you're avoiding bread, just chop up the brats and eat with the onions mixed in!

BEER BRATWURST

Ingredients:

4-6 bratwurst

2 cans/bottles of beer (24 oz)

1 yellow or white onion, sliced into strips

1/2 t red pepper flakes

1/2 t garlic

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

Buns

Spicy brown mustard (optional)

Method:

Mix beer, onions, and spices in pan large enough to fit brats in 1 layer

Bring to a boil over high heat

Add brats, reduce to medium

Simmer 20 minutes, turning brats halfway through cooking time

Remove brats, keep onion/beer mix on low heat

Add brats to separate pan on medium-high heat, searing each side for about 2 minutes

Serve on buns with onion mixture (strain some of the beer out)

Mustard on the side is great!

DONE!

Loaded Potato Skins

Apparently potato skins were particularly popular and "fashionable" in the 1980's, but we are still huge fans.  They're a filling side starch or appetizer, they're easy to customize, and best of all... You can use the leftover potato flesh to make gnocchi the day after!   My next post will cover that, but for now, let's get to the tater skins.

Recipe batch with jalapenos

A previous batch, with scallions

First, you need these bad boys baked.  I normally use small russets, rub them down with a little vegetable oil and sprinkle them with salt.  Then plop them in the 400* preheated oven (directly on the center rack) for an hour, flipping them over halfway through.

Scooped and ready to roll

Once cooked, carefully remove potatoes with tongs and let them chill out on the counter for a little bit.  Once cool enough, slice them in half and scoop most of the potato flesh out.  There should still be a thin layer of potato on the skins so try to avoid tearing the skin up to avoid leakage later.  The scooped out flesh can be used in other recipes.  Mashed potato is a good option, but I really like making gnocchi, A.K.A. potato pasta dumplings!  I'll get to that in the next post~ They're delicious pillows of potato goodness.

"Save me! I still have potato-y potential!"

Now is the time to season the tubers!  Sprinkle a tiny bit of salt, pepper, garlic, and cayenne into the emptied potatoes, or whatever seasonings you prefer!  Old Bay is great, Cajun seasoning is also awesome.  Now, the toppings!  Sharp cheddar cheese is my favorite, especially sprinkled with bacon bits.  A little goes a long way with both of these ingredients.

Topped and ready to bake!

Once your seasoning, cheese, and bacon are down, plop the potatoes on a cookie sheet and let melt and sizzle in a 450* oven for 5 or 6 minutes.  Once the cheese has melted, remove from oven and top with sour cream, scallions, jalapenos, whatever you'd like!  I sprinkle on a little extra cayenne too.  It's good for you, or something.

LOADED BAKED POTATOES

Ingredients:

7 or 8 small russet potatoes

A few drops of vegetable oil

1.5 cups sharp cheddar cheese

3 T bacon bits

1/3 cup sour cream

2 diced jalapenos and/or 2 chopped scallions

Salt, pepper, garlic and cayenne to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 400* F

Rub potatoes with a few drops of vegetable oil, sprinkle with salt

Place potatoes directly on middle oven rack, cook 30 minutes

Flip potatoes, cook another 30 minutes

Remove.  Once cooled, cut potatoes in half

Scoop most of the flesh out, reserve in bowl for other recipes

Sprinkle scooped out skins with salt, pepper, garlic and cayenne

Preheat oven to 450* F

Top with a T or so of cheese and a pinch of bacon bits

Place topped potatoes on baking sheet, cook 5-6 more minutes until cheese is fully melted and bubbling

Finish up the skins with a dollop of sour cream, a few pieces of jalapenos and/or scallions, and a sprinkle of cayenne

DONE!

Experiment: Teeny Tiny Deviled Quail Eggs!

Like many people, I love miniaturized versions of things.  "What is this, a center for ants?" as Derek Zoolander would say.  So I came up with a random idea... Deviled eggs "for ants".

Standard chicken egg for scale

So teeny!

They're as big as his thumb

I'll go through the process in case anyone is curious about the method I used!  It was a fun project and they tasted great.  I'm a huge fan of deviled eggs and these turned out much better than I expected.

Quail eggs!

I picked up a pack of 15 quail eggs for ~$3 at the local Asian market.  A bit pricey for so little egg-matter, but the novelty of it was so worth it to me.

Surprisingly easy to peel!

I did some research on how long to cook quail eggs so that the yolks are set (but still yellow) and how to avoid a rubbery white.  I compared recipes and settled on bringing the eggs to a boil in salted room temperature water with 2 T of white vinegar mixed in.  Once boiling, turned down to medium and cooked for 5 minutes.  Make sure to put them in a bath of ice water once done so they stop cooking!

After cooling the eggs for 5 minutes, I gathered the courage to peel.  It was surprisingly easy!  Apparently the vinegar breaks down some of the calcium in the shell, so you can almost just pinch the shell and start peeling.

Carefully sliced open.  Big yolks!

The yolks are quite large in comparison to the white, so I tried to slice them with the yolk as centered as possible to avoid tearing (you can see a bit of the yolk through the white in areas).  Very pleased with the texture and color of the yolk!

Mixing up filling, same as regular sized eggs!

Hands down, the most difficult part was scooping out the yolks!  They're so small and difficult to handle.  But with some patience I got them out with minimal white tearing.

Mash the yolks up with a fork before adding your favorite deviled egg ingredients.  I go with mayo, mustard, hot sauce, salt, pepper, garlic, and cayenne.  Relish and Worcestershire sauce go great too.

Egg whites ready for filling in small sandwich bag

After mixing up your filling and tasting for seasoning, plop it into a sandwich bag and snip off the tip.  Pipe filling in and dust the tops with paprika or cayenne.  So tiny!!

Also, COMPLETELY unrelated, but I cooked the couple quail eggs remaining "sunny side up".  It cooks quickly but was delicious on some ramen.  Here's a picture!

One bite worth of fried egg

DEVILED QUAIL EGGS

Ingredients:

~12 quail eggs

2 T white vinegar

4 cups water + pinch of salt

1 T mayonnaise

1 t yellow or spicy brown mustard

Pinch of salt, pepper, garlic, cayenne to taste

Paprika or cayenne to garnish

Method:

Place quail eggs in salted room temperature water, mixed with white vinegar

Set temperature to "HIGH" and boil water

Once boiling, lower temperature to "MEDIUM" and cook 5 minutes

Remove eggs from water and place in ice bath

After 5 minutes of cooling, peel eggs and slice in half

Remove yolks and smash with fork or hands

Add mayo, mustard, and spices to mixture

Stuff mixture into plastic baggie, snip off corner

Pipe into egg whites and top with paprika or cayenne

DONE!

Stuffed Crust Pizza

I have very fond memories of my family ordering delivery "Stuft-Crust" pizza when I was growing up.  I was a SUPER picky eater and the cheesy faux-mozzarella crust was my prize; it was the best part of the pizza, hands down.  Making pizza is a lot of fun so I thought I would experiment making my own cheese stuffed crust pizza.

Greasy, cheesy nostalgia

Only a little cheese leakage but still, do as I say, not as I do- Freeze that cheese!

I normally try and make things from "scratch" but since this was an experiment, I bought pre-made bagged pizza dough and used string cheese for the filling.  Fresh mozzarella or even cheddar would probably be much better, but I kind of wanted the slightly artificial, highly processed taste from my childhood "Stuft Crust" experiences.  It worked out well!

Yep, string cheese.  Don't judge me!

An important tip to avoid cheese leaking out from the crust is to pop the string cheese in the freezer for at least 15 minutes before getting ready to bake.  I didn't do this step and had a bit of ooze.  Oh well!  Lesson learned.

Fold the crust alllll the way around the frozen cheese to avoid leaks

It's normally a BIG no-no for me to roll out pizza dough.  I read that somewhere, I think- to always stretch it by hand.  But in this case, I wanted enough coverage to completely cover the cheese while still having lots of surface area for toppings.  Plop the string cheese around the edge and wrap them completely with the outer dough, making SURE to tuck the excess dough under the cheese for full coverage!

Topped and ready to bake

Top your pizza and place in a very hot oven, preferably with a preheated baking stone.  Done!

CHEESE STUFFED CRUST PIZZA

Ingredients:

1 lb pizza dough (I used bagged fresh dough found in deli section)

Pinch of corn meal

7-10 mozzarella sting cheese snacks, depending on how thin you roll the crust

Sauce and toppings of your choice

Method:

Put string cheese in freezer ~15 minutes

Preheat oven to 450* F, with pizza stone on bottom rack

Sprinkle parchment paper with a little cornmeal

Roll out pizza dough to large circle

Line outer edge with very cold string cheese

Roll excess dough over and fully around each stick

Season, sauce, and top pizza with your favorite toppings

Place parchment paper with pizza on bottom rack of oven, bake ~12 minutes

Move pizza stone to center rack, bake another ~10 minutes

Done!

Simple Roast Chicken Method

Roasted whole chicken is a great weekday meal- Everyone can choose their favorite part of the chicken, plus in our case there are normally a ton of leftovers to work with the next day!  Today I'll be showing the method I use.  This is a no-frills, simple way of cooking a plain ol' refrigerated chicken, but if you prefer, you can smush herby compound butter under the skin or brine that sucker.

Finished product with bonus asparagi and mac n' cheese

I always use a cast iron skillet to cook my chicken, but any heavy roasting pan works.

The most important bit of this method is the super duper scientific calculation you must make to time the cook!  So fancy!  [Weight in lbs x 20] + 10 = Minutes in the oven at 350* F.

Example Chicken!

So, for example, with my chicken tonight, [4.83 x 20] + 10 = ~107 minutes (AKA 1 hour and 43 minutes)  Thank you, phone calculator!

I like to add whatever veggies I have laying around to the pan, nestled up against the chicken.  The fat flavors them wonderfully and you can always make a more flavorful gravy if you feel so inclined! 

The key to getting a nice crisp skin without using super high temps is to make sure the chicken is thoroughly dried, before applying a little oil and the spices.

Raw and ready to roll

As you can see, simply dressed.  Rubbed with a squirt of olive oil on each side, stuffed with onion scraps and a few garlic cloves (unpeeled is fine), seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and thyme.  Thyme is such a chicken-y herb.  Make sure you season both sides, and if you remember, some seasoning on the inside of the bird as well.

I "truss" legs in a really rudimentary way- I just tie them together nice and tight.  This apparently helps prevent dryness in the breast meat.  I don't keep kitchen twine handle so I use hemp strings.  It works!

Now you're all set!  Plop that badboy in the oven at 350* for your calculated time.  Once done, make sure to let it rest at least 5 or so minutes so the juices can redistribute.  I hope you find this method helpful!

Havana Night: Cuban "Medianoche" Sandwiches and Mojitos

Pepe and I have been missing the beach lately and decided to dedicate a night to Cuba.  Full disclosure, we are not even remotely Cuban and the night consisted of Netflix and listening to Harry Belafonte (who isn't even Cuban)...  Everything turned out well but I'm sure nothing was very authentic!  I unfortunately forgot to get plantains; fried up slices of those gigantic banana-things would have been awesome on the side.

Dat cheese ooze

Minty fresh!

CUBAN MEDIANOCHE SANDWICHES

Ingredients:

Mayonaise

Yellow mustard

Sliced deli ham

Swiss cheese

Dill Pickle sandwich slices

Cuban bread or hoagie roll

Method:

Slather rolls with mayo and mustard to taste

Layer a few slices of ham and a couple slices of cheese on bread

Load up the sandwich with pickles (you want pickle in every bite!)

Grill on lightly greased panini press or skillet on medium heat until cheese is oozy and bread is golden

Slice and eat, preferably with fried plantains and an icy mojito!

MOJITOS
Ingredients:

Shot of white rum

Juice of half a lime

1 T granulated sugar

Several mint leaves

~4 oz club soda, more/less to taste

Lime slice to garnish

Method:

Muddle mint leaves (I used about 4 per cocktail) in granulated sugar and lime juice

Add shot of rum, still until sugar is completely dissolved

Add ice and club soda, stir, and garnish with lime slice

Cheers!

Deli Pinwheels

Little wheels of finger food!

Hubs and I recently went on a trip to Myrtle beach, and I was wracking my brain to figure out what type of finger food we should bring.  You know, for grabbing at a road trip pit stop without needing plates or cutlery, for bringing to the beach to snack on, etc.  Since we have copious amounts of cream cheese and hot sauce in our fridge, this is my version of the deli pinwheel!  It worked out great and we we devoured the whole lot of them by the end of the trip.

DELI PINWHEELS
Ingredients:
3 large tortillas or wraps (sundried tomato flavor or spinach gives extra flavor)
2/3 cup cream cheese/neufchatel
1/3 cup hot sauce
Half head of romaine lettuce
Swiss or pepper jack cheese slices
Deli meat (We used half roast beef and half turkey)
Toofpicks!

Method:
Mix cream cheese with hot sauce of your choice- I used Franks, because its awesome!
Spread 1/3 of mixture evenly on tortillas
Layer 3 slices of cheese on top of cream cheese mix, leaving 1/3 empty
Top cheese with big leaves of Romaine, again leaving 1/3 pretty much untouched
Add 6 slices of deli meat, again... you get the idea :)
Roll the tortillas, filled side first, tightly until the cream cheese "glues" the end to the roll
Cover the rolls with plastic wrap
Pop in the freezer 10 minutes
Slice the rolls into ~1 inch rounds, securing each with a toothpick stabbed through the center
DONE!