Potato Onion Skillet, another for the colder weather

(Updated 2/29/12, now with yummilicious pictures!)

I'm not really sure where I got this recipe, though I think it may be another from Jeff Smith's "Frugal Gourmet" show. This is a fantastic tasting and easy winter time recipe that always leaves us with a warm and full belly. The basic recipe has only 6 simple ingredients and uses only one pot, so both prep and cleanup are a breeze.

Although I've called this a skillet dish, it works even better when made in a deep pot, such as a soup or stock pot because you can make more layers of potato, onion and cabbage and fit more sausage on top. Warm up with this dish once when you are feeling chilled. It is sure to become a cold weather regular for you, too.

Potato Onion Skillet

Ingredients:
3 medium onions, sliced thin and separated into individual rings
3 or 4 Large potatoes, sliced thin
Use Yukon Gold potatoes, if possible.
They really add to the flavor and texture to this dish.
3 cups shredded cabbage
½ pound (or more!) Polish or smoked sausage, sliced thin
1 cup chicken broth
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Freshly ground black pepper



Instructions:
1. Cover the bottom of the pot with a layer of potato.
2. Cover the potato layer with a layer of the onion rings.
3. Add a generous grind of pepper.
4. Make another layer of potato, another layer of onion and pepper, then a third layer of potato.
5. Add another generous grind of pepper.
6. Make a layer of cabbage.
7. Layer the sliced sausage over the cabbage
8. Turn the heat on to high until you hear the potato start to sizzle on the bottom. This should take just a minute or two.
9. Pour in the chicken broth, turn the heat down to low simmer and cover tightly.
10. Cook covered for about 20 minutes.
11. Turn off the heat. Top with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and put cover back on.
12. Let stand 5 minutes so that the cheese melts slightly and serve.

We like to serve this with a nice Sourdough bread. And this is another "even better the day after" dishes.

The first layer. Don't forget the pepper!

Three layers of potato, starting to top with the cabbage.

Topped with sausage slices. The more you can fit, the better!

Simmered for 20 minutes, then topped with the Parmigiano-Reggiano

Yum. Don't forget the bread!

Enjoy,
Lorence

(Originally posted 09/30/2006)

Barely's Smokehouse dinner tonight

We went to Barley's Smokehouse tonight, used the Prestige Dining Card and got one meal for free.
The boy and I shared a plate of ribs called "The Great Debate", a half rack of baby backs with Texas Smokedip sauce and a half rack of St. Louis Spareribs with the sweeter Kansas City BBQ sauce. Karen had the Smokehouse Half chicken (w/KC sauce). Most of both were demolished! Accompanying the meal was an amazingly smooth creamy and malty St Joan's Revenge Nitro Imperial Stout - Not CO2'd, but nitrogened instead (thus the intense creamy feel and flavor). It matched with the Texas sauce perfectly.

Good food, good beer, lots of wet naps on the table and EXCELLENT service. It was a good dinner.

If you live in or near Columbus or Dayton and you haven't gotten a Prestige Dining card yet, go to this link to see what I've said about it previously, then buy one! I think they are about $40 each and well worth it - BOGO at >100 restaurants! There are lots of Indian restaruants in this years as well as many of our other favorites (both Barley's, Vino Vino, Cuco's, Carfagna's Kitchen...). Buy one get one free - who doesn't like that?

Enjoy,
Lorence

Skillet Ziti with Chicken and Broccoli

This week’s “Kid meal” (no, not that kind, the meal was MADE by the kid!) was a tasty selection from his DSi game “Let’s Get Cooking” from America’s Test Kitchen. This is a great little application with 300 recipes and easy to follow instructions, hints, tips, tricks, and even basic instruction, like how to chop an onion. He’s made several dishes from it before and all have been very good. Last night’s Skillet Ziti with Chicken and Broccoli was no exception. Though it has several ingredients, it only uses one pot and had a good depth of flavor.

The recipe can be found here.

He did a great job and was justifiably proud of his creation:
Give the DSi game a try and try this dish, too!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Baked Egg Cups

I saw a couple of interesting posts while perusing Printerst a couple of nights ago and tried my hand this morning - Roasted Egg cups with ham.
Here are the two posts that I saw:
Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups
Baked Egg Cups

I didn't have any bacon in the house (I know, for shame...), but I did have some deli ham (Kroger Private Select Smokehouse ham) that I had just bought, so off I went.
First, I spray greased the muffin pan and the cups with some bread I had rolled flat.
Then I placed a slice of ham in the cup, a little bit of cheese, and then cracked an egg into it.
I topped each with a little salt & pepper and a couple of strips of prosciutto.
Then into the oven (375º) for 20 minutes, and voila, breakfast!












Give it a try!

Enjoy,
Lorence

Pho Asian Noodles

An unassuming ex-Taco Bell at the end of the strip of stores on Lane Avenue might seem an odd place for a great dinner, but oh, my, can looks be deceiving...

Tonight we finally took the plunge at went to Pho Asian Noodles House and Grill for dinner. I've read many reviews and we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to try, but the extensive menu still made the decision a little tough. We finally decided on the Vietnamese Salad Rolls, Chicken Pad Thai, Roasted Duck Noodle Soup and, of course, Pho Dac Biet. I ordered at the counter and at at our table to wait for the food to be delivered.

First came the Vietnamese Salad Rolls which were very good, served with a plum sauce that was covered with crushed peanuts. The rolls have a rice paper wrapper around lettuce, rice noodles, some Thai basil, shredded chicken and 3 shrimp:

They were fresh and light, had great flavor (especially with the plum sauce) and a very good bargain at $4. We each demolished one.

Next came our entrees:
Karen's Chicken Pad Thai, which she described as the freshest and best she'd had. All of the flavors burst forth and it had just the right level of spice and heat, all in an amazingly huge portion:
The Boog's Roasted Duck Noodle Soup:
H loves duck and this soup was packed with chunks of it, mostly on the bone (not the easiest to eat!) along with a huge heap of noodles and oriental lettuce (like bok choy) and a broth that he described as rich and mildly sweet:
He was very happy at his bowl full of bounty!

My pho dac biet, another huge bowl of soup, laden with incredibly tender beef slices, beef tendon meatballs, a ton of rice noodles and a plate full of accompanying add-ins, cilantro, bean sprouts, jalapenos and Thai basil:

I tossed a bunch of each of the add-ins as well as a healthy squirt sriracha, and dug in. After about a half hour of chowing down we all decided that we'd eaten our fill and wrapped up the remaining pad Thai and duck soup ( I pretty much killed off the pho!). We left satisfied bellies full of flavor and delicious food and all for about $30, including drinks (Karen & Boog both loved the Thai iced tea).

Here's a scan of the menu as of 11/16/11:

The place was packed at dinner time (6:30 pm) and was mostly filled with Asian people of all walks. It was interesting to hear all of the accents and dialects being spoken. And it's always a good sign, when you go to an ethnic restaurant and the people that are of that ethnicity are patrons.

Go to Pho. Have the Pho! Have anything - after tonight, I can't imagine anything they serve not being totally tasty. And if you're just driving by, stop anyway, they have a drive-thru!

Pho Asian Noodle House and Grill

1288 West Lane Avenue, Col, O 43221

Enjoy,

Lorence

Lorence's Goat Cheese Empanadas

A coworker recently made a "hummus" of sorts, an interesting concoction of chickpeas, oil-packed sun dried tomotoes, garlic and goat cheese. I was heating up my lunch in the work kitchen's microwave and flipping through a copy of "Real Simple" magazine when she offered me a taste. I really enjoyed the intense flavor and creamy texture and immediately flipped back a couple of pages inthe magazine to a recipe I had just seen, Goat Cheese Empanadas (can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/3snfv7w). I knew what I had to do...

So tonight I combined the two recipes and made a third to accompany my creation, a roasted corn salsa.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic

4 oz oil packed sun dried tomatoes

1 can chickpeas (drained/rinsed)

4 oz goat cheese

olive oil

refrigerated pie crust, 2 crusts (make your own if you have the time)

Method:

In a food processor, process the garlic, tomatoes, chickpeas and goat cheese and add the olive oil until it reaches a smooth hummus like consistency.

Roll out the pie crusts.

Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut circles from the 2 refrigerated crusts.

Put about a teaspoon of the hummus in the center of each round.

(I rolled out the scraps of dough and made more rounds to stuff!)

Lightly dot the edges of the dough with water, fold in half, and press with a fork to seal.

Bake on a foil or parchment lined baking sheet at 375ºF until golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve with fresh made Roasted Corm Salsa, found on Taste of Home.

The roasted corn, fresh off of the grill:

Enjoy!

Lorence

Bari Pizzaria in Galloway, off to a good start

We had a craving for pizza last night feuled by an ad we had seen in the weekly community paper (Westside Messenger) for a new local business, Bari Pizzaria. The ad had a $5 coupon and a link to their website, http://baripizzaria.com/. We really wanted to eat out, so I called and asked if they had any eat-in tables. I was told that, yes, they do, but they have no public restrooms.

O.K., why not...

Upon arrival, we found a small front section to what is essentially a carry-out business, but there were two small 3 seat tables. We looked over the menu a bit more and ordered a 14" pizza with pepperoni, onions and mushrooms. We also ordered a side of breaded fried cheese ravioli ($4.50) and 3 cans of soda (Grape Crush, A&W Root Beer,Diet Pepsi). With our $5 coupon, our total was $17.50. We sat down to wait and the owner showed us that the two arcade game machines were free to play while we waited (my 10 yr old son loved that!). One machine was the "Multicade" machine, which has 60 different classic video games... The wait passed quickly.

When our pizza and ravioli arrived, we were NOT disappointed. The first thing we noticed- the pizza was cut PROPERLY! Not in those stupid little squares that Columbus pizza is 'famous' for, but cut into slices, 8 nice triangular slices, like a pizza should be. Next, we noticed that the mushrooms were fresh, not those rubbery canned mushrooms most places use; and then we noticed that the onions are a mix of both white and red onion, another very nice a tasty touch.

So far, it looks great. But how does it taste? Quite good, actually. The hand tossed crust is nearly perfect; it has the correct consistency and the right flavor, the pizza crust flavor that I remember from my youth in Jersey. The only thing that would have given it a perfect rating would be if it was a bit more crisp in the center, as can only be achieved in a genuine high temp flat bottom traditional pizza oven (Bari uses the modern moving track pizza oven). The sauce was very good, somewhat mild, possibly could use a bit more oregano and garlic, but still very tasty. The cheese was plentiful, had a very nice melt to it, and a genuine and fresh taste. The pepperoni was mild and not too greasy, perhaps a bit too mild, but the mushrooms had great fresh taste as did the onions, which were not burnt or even crisp, they were probably put on late in the baking process so they didn't lose their flavor. As I mentioned above the onions were a mix of both white and red onion. And I could actually pick up a piece and fold it like a good slice should be folded!

All in all, it was a very good pizza. I'm an East coast boy, a native New Yorker, raised in central Jersey, and Columbus has just been hell when it comes to decent pizza. Bari gives me hope.

I didn't get a shot of the pizza at the shop (forgot the camera!), but this is what we had leftover:

We'll definitely be back for more.

One more test that all pizza must pass - the morning after test - how does it taste right out of the fridge for breakfast? This pizza was THE best cold breakfast pizza I've had so far in my 24 years in Columbus! Outstanding - worth ordering a larger size just to have extra to put in the fridge for later!

Bari's menu lists both Chicago style deep dish and stuffed pizza and we're big fans of Chicago style pizza, especially Giordano's , so we'll be giving Bari's Chicago style a try, too.

Oh yeah, the Breaded ravioli...Not bad, not great. they were stuffed fat, had a very nice crispy golden crust and were served with the Bari pizza sauce. Not bad, not great, but interesting. Glad we had the $5 coupon, though.

If you live anywhere near Galloway, please give Bari's Pizzeria a shot. It's worth the drive to pick it up. They've got a good product, a clean shop, a good attitude towards using fresh ingredients and the owner is a real friendly guy.

Bari Pizzaria
946 Galloway Rd
Columbus, OH 43119

Enjoy,
Lorence
614-878-7700

Chocolate Strawberry Sorbet

After the success of our first two sorbet attempts (based on Martha Stewart's recipe - see my Blackberry sorbet attempt here, My son wanted me to make Strawberry sorbet - he loves strawberries, they're in season AND on sale at the grocery store. He suggested that we add cocoa powder to it so it would be chocolate strawberry flavored.

And so we did.

Same basic recipe -

12 ounces of fresh fruit, frozen overnight;

Process the frozen fruit in bursts to break it up some;

Add syrup (1/4 cup water + 1/4 cup sugar (dissolved)) while processing (for this recipe, I added a large tablespoon of cocoa powder and blended it in well to make a chocolate syrup);

push the mixture down into the process and mix it a bit,
then process it lots more until it's really smooth. It will be slightly frozen at this point.

Transfer it to a container and freeze for an hour or two;

Eat and enjoy!

Like I said up there, I made the syrup with 1/4 cup of sugar dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water, then whisked in a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder. My son says it has "a very good balance of chocolate to strawberry, neither one is overpowering the other, but they're playing off of each other well."

I'll have to take his word for it since I do NOT eat strawberries - besides the fact that I don't like them at all, they make me break out really badly, so none of this batch is for me...

But you should make this!

Enjoy,

Lorence

Vanilla Peach Sorbet

This is Sorbet recipe attempt #2, a la Martha Stewart's recipe (I previously posted the recipe as I made it with Blackberries). I was ok with the blackberry version, but berries always seem a bit 'grainy' to me - it's a texture thing, what with all of the seeds...the flavor was great, though. Since peaches are in season right now, I thought I'd try them out this way. And for some reason, I thought a bit of vanilla flavor would be great with them. I was almost right - wrong vanilla, but great flavor.

So here's what I did:

Peeled and cut up 12 oz of fresh peaches.

Froze said peaches overnight

Process the peaches as in the original recipe - a few good bursts to break the up;

then whir the crap out of them while adding the 1/4 cup of vanilla'd syrup (1/4 cup water with 1/4 cup sugar dissolved in it + 1 teaspoon of pure REAL vanilla extract).

Push the mixture back down into the processor and keep processing until smooth.

Freeze for a couple of hours.

Eat.

Say Mmmmm......

It was quite tasty and I ate nearly all of it over the next 3 days - I did share some, though;

I'm not that mean.

You have to try this with your favorite fruit. Next up for us: Chocolate Strawberry sorbet.

Enjoy,

Lorence

Grilled Lamb Kebobs

My wife did the grocery shopping recently and came home with a pound of organic free range ground lamb for me do something with. Normally, I would make Kheema, but since it was nearly 7 PM and still over 90°F outside, I didn't want to cook anything in the house; Grill, baby, grill!

I went in search of a grilled ground lamb recipe and found this recipe for Ground Lamb on Skewers - essentially, Grilled Lamb Kebobs.

It's a pretty straight forward recipe, chop up some stuff, combine some spiced/herbs, mix it all with the meat, skewer it and stick it on the grill.

Grilled Lamb Kebobs

Ingredients:

1 green chile, finely chopped

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 pound lamb (or beef)

2 teaspoon coriander

2 cloves minced garlic

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon garam masala

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground almonds

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

vegetable oil

1 egg

For the chile, I used a jalapeño and the 'coriander' I took to be fresh cilantro (both right off the plant from the garden). I ground some raw almonds in my spice grinder. Be sure not to process too much, it'll get a bit pasty if you're not careful.

Method:

Preheat grill.

Mix all ingredients together.

Mold mixture around long skewers (or do it the hard way and form the mixture into long thin sausages and thread onto skewers). Only the ends of the skewers should be visible.

(obviously, thiswas not how I did it!)

Place on grill, brush with oil and cook until done.

Remove from skewers and serve.

Traditionally served with rice and onion slices.

Kebobs just placed on the grill

After the first turn

A little flare up starting from the oil/grease

Into the fire for a final char

Off the grill and ready to serve

And ready to eat!

Topped off with some tahini on a bed of Jasmine rice.

Enjoy,
Lorence

Blackberry Sorbet, oh, so easy

A former coworker (now retired) posted a comment on Facebook last week about making Raspberry sorbet in a flash using a recipe from the current issue of Martha Stewart's magazine. Later that night, my wife was raving about the fresh blackberries she had purchased when she went grocery shopping earlier.

Wife: You have to try these, they're perfect!
Me: Hmm, fresh berries, now what did I just read about making something with fresh berries..., Oh yeah, sorbet!
Son: Sorbet? Did you say you can make sorbet? Can we do it NOW?

And out to the store we went for more berries.
We bought two 6 ounce containers of beautiful fresh blackberries and stuck them in the freezer.

<time passed... about 12 hours. 12 very long hours>

Then after less than 10 minutes more of blender splendor, Sorbet.
And not too shabby for a first go at it.

And no ice cream maker needed!

This is Martha's original recipe:
Raspberry Sorbet with Fresh Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup plus 1 T. sugar
1 bag frozen raspberries, 12 oz, OR 3 cups fresh raspberries, frozen
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Stir together water and 1/4 cup sugar until sugar dissolves.
Pulse raspberries in food processor until coarsely shopped.
With machine running, pour in sugar-water; pulse until mixture is smooth.
Transfer to an airtight container, and freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.

Whisk cream and remaining tablespoon sugar until soft peaks form. Scoop sorbet into 4 glasses and top with whipped cream..
Serves 4

I modified the recipe only to use blackberries. I froze fresh berries myself (they were on sale - $1/6 oz pack) and after the initial pulse, I had to run the processor while adding the sugar water, then push the mixture down and process some more to get the right consistency. It was still a bit grainy, but WOW, is it tasty.

Oh, yeah, I skipped the whipped cream. It would work really well, though.

These photos aren't the best, but you get the idea.

The ingredients

After the initial pulsing

Half way there, time to push it down inside my little processor

Ready to put in the freezer for a while

Voila. Blackberry Sorbet.

The boy wholeheartedly approves.

I'm looking forward to trying this technique out with some other flavor combos, like mango, strawberry & chocolate, peach and vanilla, maybe even apple caramel.

Any other ideas?

Enjoy,
Lorence

Jambalya-Red Beans and Rice mashup, Quick Style

While out doing the weekly grocery shopping, I came across Aidells sausages. On sale and with coupons! I tried the Chicken and Apple, Italian style with mozzeralla (both were very good in the dishes I made with them) and I also bought the Cajun Style Andouille. Ok, what should I do with THAT? First thought - Jambalaya. But I don't really have the time to make a good from scratch Jambalaya. I've had box of Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice up in the cupboard for a while, though, so I could do that, but I didn't really want to make just a plain reb beans and rice dish. Jambalaya or Red beans and rice? I like 'em both...Which should I make? Can't decide, can't decide...ok, I'll make them BOTH! Together! In one pot! know what? It was pretty good and pretty quick. My son's friend was over that night and chowed down on it big time. I sent the little bit of leftover home with him for his parents to try, but he never gave them the chance (he ate it for breakfast the next day!).
A couple of weeks later I had to make a dish for the annual Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner and it was suggested that I make that same dish. Off I went to the store to find the mix and sausage. The good new was that the mix was easy to find. The bad news was that they were out of Aidell's...The only thing I could find was Johnsonville New Orleans Brand Smoked Sausage. While I didn't like it quite as well as the Aidell's, it did the job just fine.
I doubled the recipe, included additional rice, both canned and fresh tomato, the "holy trinity", green pepper, onion and of course oil; but not just any oil. Lard, baby, lard. You, of course, can use plain old vegetable oil if you prefer.

The resulting big pot of food disappeared quickly at the dinner, garnering praise form those that partook.

Mission Accomplished.
Jambalya-Red Beans and Rice mashup, Quick Style
Ingredients used:
6 1/2 cups of water
2 tablespoons butter,margarine, vegetable oil or lard. (DO NOT DOUBLE THIS ITEM)
2 packages Zatarain's® Red Beans and Rice
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 fresh tomato, diced
1/2 cup each celery, bell peppers, and onions, all diced.
1 package of Aidell's Cajun Style Andouille sausage, sliced, diced or whatever size cut you like (see photo for how I did mine)

Method:
On high heat, haat a large dutch oven and add the sausage. Cook while stirring constantly, until just starting to brown a bit. You should get a bit of browning on the pot's bottom from the sausage.
Remove the sausage to a bowl and add the oil and the celery, bell peppers, and onions and saute until the onions return opaque.
Add the oil, water, rice mixes, tomatoes, stir it all around and bring it all to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low.
Slap a lid on the pot and simmer 25 minutes or until rice is tender, stirring occasionally.
Serve hot.


You can also add some cayenne to it if you like it with even more of a bit more kick.

Enjoy,
Lorence