Barbecue Pork Frito Pie

If you're from Texas then you're no stranger to Frito pies. The toppings that are placed on top of the Frito chips vary from: chili or leftover barbecue. It can be served in a bowl or plate but the norm is to have it served from the bag the of chips.

It's probably been over 10 years since I've had a Frito pie but a few weeks ago my friends and I stumbled upon a barbecue trailer on South Congress Avenue in Austin, TX that was serving barbecue Frito pie. This must have been our lucky day since our reason for being out and about was to attend the chili festival there. With so much people at the festival we decided to venture elsewhere for something to eat. Thanks to Bar-B-Que-T, my ten year drought of Frito pies have come to an end. I enjoyed it so much I made a variation of this dish for a Super Bowl party. I tried to stay true to the barbecue ways by slow cooking a five pound pork shoulder on the barbecue grill for five hours at about 250 degrees. The result was a beautiful dark brown bark on the outside while keeping it juicy on the inside.

Barbecue Pork Ingredients:

5 lbs Pork Shoulder

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

Barbecue Sauce Ingredients:

4 cups ketchup

1/2 cup Worcestershire's sauce

1 tablespoon black pepper

1/2 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 can Bush's Grillin' Beans

1 yellow onion (diced)

5-6 garlic cloves minced

2 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon canola oil

Accompaniments:

Frito Lay Fritos

Cheddar cheese (grated)

Red/White onions (diced)

Jalapenos (fresh or pickled)

Barbecue Pork Directions:

Evenly distribute and rub in all of the dry spices listed above on the pork. Let this sit for about 20-30 minutes. The salt will draw out moisture and your rub will look more like a paste. Then continue adding any of the spices that did not stick initially to the pork. Set your grill to the lowest heat. If you're using charcoal leave one side of the grill free of charcoal and fire. You're going to be using the indirect heat cooking method on this pork so that it doesn't burn and turn into charcoal itself. Place the pork on the side of the grill that's not heated/charcoal free. Let this cook for one hour and then flip it on the other side. Continue flipping every hour for 5 hours. You know your pork is ready when it's fork tender and can be easily pulled. Once the roast has completed cooking, let it rest by covering it in foil on a plate for 30 minutes before cutting or pulling the meat. To prep for the Frito pie you can either use your hands and tear bite size chunks or use a knife and cut the meat into 1/2 inch cubes. I cut mine into bite size pieces.

Barbecue Sauce Directions:

Preheat a large stock pot or dutch oven on medium high heat and add oil. Next add the onions and the salt and let it sweat for 5-7 minutes or until translucent. Then add the garlic and stir it around for about 2 minutes to get some additional flavor out of it. You're now ready to add the ketchup, Worcestershire's sauce, black pepper, paprika, cayenne, and honey. Lower the heat to simmer and let this cook for and additional 30-40 minutes; continue stirring every 10 minutes to keep the bottom of the pan from burning. Now that your barbecue pork and sauce is ready, you'll now add the pork to the sauce and stir well. Add the beans and let this continue on simmer for another 30 minutes.

Your topping for your Frito pie is now ready! All you have to do now is put all the ingredients together. This is how I like to do it. Start off with the Frito chips, add the barbecue, add a little cheddar cheese, freshly chopped onions, and jalapenos. I have no idea how I would've been able to fit that all in the original Frito Lay's bag, but I guess that's why they invented bowls.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Lemon Butter Chilean Sea Bass w/ Creamy Crimini Risotto

First, I would like to thank everyone for following my blog last year. I would also like to apologize for not updating it in over 2 months.

However, no need to fear - I'm still cooking but I just haven't had the time to post any blogs. 2011 is going to be a big year for Bistro 331, I've already moved into a new place with new appliances! So hopefully I can do bigger and better things.

Chilean Sea Bass has always been my favorite fish ever since I had my first taste at Eddie V's. Eddie V's serves theirs Hong Kong style steamed in soy sauce and ginger - I'll prepare a variation of that dish in one of my upcoming blogs. The way I've prepare it today is very simple; where you can do this technique with just about any white fish. The risotto I've paired with this dish, pairs perfectly. Personally, I think it enhances the creaminess of the fish itself.

Ingredients:

Chilean Sea Bass
1 1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 lemon (juice and zest)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 cup Arborio rice
3-4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup Crimini mushrooms (chopped)
3-4 tablespoon heavy cream
Parsley (for garnish)
1/8 cup Parmesan cheese (grated and a few thin slices for garnish)

Directions:

You may want to start on your risotto first as it takes 15-20 minutes to prepare. To see how to prepare the risotto follow the link to a previous post.

Now onto the main event - the succulent Chilean Sea Bass. Dry rub your fish by sprinkling a little salt and pepper on all sides. Next, melt 1 stick of butter into the skillet that you will be using to cook the fish. Once the butter has melted, add the lemon juice and zest to the skillet. Place the fish on the skillet - do not try to flip it too soon or it'll break on you. With a metal spoon, take some of the butter from the skillet and begin bathing the top of the fish, you'll continue to do so until the fish is ready to be flipped. To test if your fish is ready to flip or not, take the spatula and gently try to lift the edge of the fish, if it lifts easily, it's ready to be flipped if it's still sticking to the pan then it's not quite ready yet. Depending on the thickness of the fish (this one was about 2 inches thick) you should cook each side for about 4-5 minutes. Once the fish has been cook, you'll want to drain some of the excess butter from the fish by holding the fish on a spatula for a minute or two over the skillet.

Once the fish has cooked, all you need to do now is plate your fish on top of the risotto that you prepared beforehand. Garnish with some fresh curly leaf parsley and a few strips of Parmesan cheese. This is one of my favorite dishes so I hope you'll give it a try.

Baked Shumai Stuffed Mushrooms in Tomato Sauce

As you can probably tell by the title, this dish has a Chinese and Italian inspiration. Shumai is one of my favorite dim sum dishes and how can you ever go wrong with Italian style tomato sauce. The mushrooms are a perfect vessel to bridge the two dishes together. This shumai is made of ground pork and shrimp and the tomato sauce has a hint of cream to help balance out the natural acidic flavor of the tomatoes.

Tomato Sauce Ingredients:

1 can San Marzano tomatoes (28 oz)
4 garlic gloves (minced)
1 large shallot (minced)
5 sprigs fresh basil (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon olive oil
4-5 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon dry crushed chili peppers
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 ounces mozzarella cheese (thinly sliced or grated to spread on top of dish)

Preheat a stock pot with olive oil on medium high heat for 1-2 minutes. Then add the garlic and shallots, cook until shallots are translucent (about 3 minutes). Add the tomatoes with the sauce from the can and begin crushing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon in the pot. Add the basil, thyme, oregano, chili peppers, salt, black pepper and bay leaves. Bring the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot. Let this continue cooking while creating the shumai stuffed mushrooms and stir every 5 minutes. Stir in the cream in the last 5 minutes before adding to the mushrooms.

Shumai Ingredients:

9-10 large button mushrooms (stem removed and saved for stuffing)
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound shrimp (finely chopped)
2 scallions (finely chopped)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Accompaniments:

Pasta (Spaghetti or Angel Hair is perfect for this)
Garlic bread

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Finely chopped the stems of the mushrooms and add to a mixing bowl. Then add the pork, shrimp, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, salt, and black pepper. Gently mix all the ingredients in the bowl. Take the mixture and stuff the hollow area of the mushrooms, I like to over stuff mine and have quite a bit of the stuffing stick out from the mushrooms.

Place the mushrooms in a cast iron skillet (I like using a cast iron skillet because it retains heat and keeps the food nice and hot while serving) or casserole dish with the stuffing side up. Add the tomato sauce and cover entire contents. Bake for 30 minutes and then add the mozzarella cheese on top of each of the mushrooms. Continue baking for another 20 minutes to allow the cheese to melt into the dish. Carefully remove the dish with oven mits and serve with pasta and garlic bread.

Trio of Pizza Dough and Waffle Cut Parmesan Fries with Kaffir Lime Aioli

I'm heading Houston this weekend and still refuse to do any grocery shopping. I was going to just make pizza but that was too simple so I decided to utilize the pizza dough in 3 different ways. From left to right there's your standard margarita pizza with fresh tomatoes and basil, calzone stuff with mozzarella and pepperoni, and an open pizza roll stuffed with pineapples, mushrooms, basil, tomatoes, and tomato sauce. For an appetizer I made waffle cut fries topped with Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.

Pizza dough ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup warm water

Directions:

Add yeast to warm water and let it rest for 5 minutes. Then add yeast and water mixture along with salt, sugar, and olive oil to flour. Knead dough well and let it rest for an hour.

Pizza sauce ingredients:

14 ounce San Marzano tomatoes

1 large shallot diced
2 garlic cloves diced
2 sprigs fresh basil
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a sauce pan and cook on medium high heat. With an immersion blender blend mixture until it is all the same consistency. Set aside and keep on simmer until ready to use.

Margarita pizza ingredients:

1/3 of pizza dough

Pizza sauce

Roma tomatoes sliced

Fresh basil
Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Cut 1/3 of pizza dough, create a ball and begin rolling out the dough into a circular shape (you can make it as thin as you like it). Add pizza sauce with a ladle on top of the pizza in a circular motion. Then add your toppings, for this application simply add mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and basil. Bake for approximately 10 minutes at super high heat (500 plus degrees).

Calzone ingredients:

1/3 of the pizza dough

Pizza sauce

Pepperoni

Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Roll out pizza dough into a circle. On one half of the dough add, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. Fold the empty side of the dough over the top of the filled side. With a fork seal the edges of the dough and brush with olive oil. Cook at 500 degrees for 10 minutes. Serve with a side of pizza sauce.

Open pizza roll ingredients:

1/3 pizza dough

Pizza sauce

Pineapples

Mushrooms

Basil

Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

This one is a little tricky. I was trying to find a way to roll the pizza dough into a cone shape and the only thing I could find was an empty tomato sauce can that I split in half and roll into a cone. Roll out the pizza dough and then cut it in half. Then wrap the dough around the metal cone and brush with olive oil. Cook in a 500 degree oven for 5 minutes. Retrieve the crust and let it cool down before pulling it off of the metal cone. Stuff crust with ingredients other than the pizza sauce and place in oven for another 3 minutes. Add pizza sauce into the roll prior to serving.

Waffle Cut Parmesan Fries:

1 russet potato

Grated Parmesan cheese
Parsley finely chopped
Canola oil

Directions:

Cut your potatoes with the waffle fry insert into a bowl of cold water. Heat oil to 375 degrees while drying potatoes on a towel; when oil is ready, cook potatoes for approximately 5 minutes. Immediately after you pull fries out of the oil add cheese and parsley and mix well.

Kaffir lime aioli ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise (store bought or homemade)
7 large kaffir lime leaves (spine removed)
2 garlic cloves

Directions:

In a food processor add garlic and kaffir lime leaves. Blend to very fine consistency and add mayonnaise. Continue blending until all ingredients are incorporated.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.8

Lobster with Risotto and Lobster Bisque

I went to the market today to grab some water for the weekend guests and I just so happen to stumble upon a live lobster sale. That got my mind racing a million miles per hour. Should I or shouldn't I buy a lobster? Should I wait for my long delayed lobster battle? Well, if you see the picture posted above, you already know the answer. Now I was thinking, how can I fully utilize this lobster? I felt sorry for the little crustacean at first but there's no turning back now, it's already sitting on my cutting board (I also didn't want its sacrifice to go in vane). So off the tail goes and the rest of the body and claws went into a boiling pot of water to make some stock. I used the stock for the risotto and bisque (I consider this to be a trio of lobster dishes). The bisque also contains the meat from the knuckles and claws. I really wanted to use this lobster to its full potential. Hours later this is what the result was (I was also making some spicy beef noodle soup at the same time, for the weekend that's why it took a couple of hours).

Lobster stock ingredients:

10 cups of water
Lobster head
Lobster claws
1 tablespoon kosher salt

Directions:

Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients. Wait for at least 20-30 minutes before using the stock. Also always keep the stock hot.

Lobster bisque ingredients:

1 shallot minced
1 garlic clove minced
3 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup lobster stock
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon tomato paste
4 tablespoon heavy cream
Lobster claw and knuckle meat (chopped)

Directions:

Add butter, shallot, and garlic to a small stock pot on medium high heat. Add all other ingredients except for lobster meat and use an immersion blend to bring all the components together. Add lobster meat at the very end and keep on simmer until ready to serve.

Lobster stock risotto ingredients:

1/4 cup arborio rice
1 cup lobster stock (more or less until rice is cooked)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tablespoon heavy cream
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
4-6 button mushrooms thinly sliced

Directions:

Add rice and 1/4 of lobster stock to a skillet on medium high heat. Continue cooking and stirring until stock is reduce by 75% then add another 1/4 of the lobster stock. Continue this process until rice is almost cooked completely. Then add cream, cheese, and mushrooms. Continue cooking and stirring until risotto thickens.

Lobster tail ingredients:

Lobster tail
Pinch of garlic powder
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 sprig fresh parsley minced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°. Cut a slit down the middle of the tail with shears. Pull the meat out and let it sit on top of the shell. Clean meat and shell under cold running water. Pat dry and sprinkle garlic powder, paprika, salt, and parsley on to of the tail. Place butter on top of the dry ingredients. Put lobster tail on baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.8

Cheese Steak Sandwich

I initially started calling this a "Philly" cheese steak, but being from Dallas (home of America's team - Dallas Cowboys!) I didn't want to put "Philly" as a prefix for any of my dishes. Someone was disappointed that I didn't post anything yesterday and threatened me if I didn't post anything today (I'm sure you can make this dish, it's right up your alley). After a long day at the driving range I really didn't want to cook but I didn't want to disappoint the future editor of my blog (I also didn't want to eat fast food). I had to think about what ingredients this person would be comfortable with and it took a lot of thought but I decided I wanted something heavy and filling (there goes my diet) as well especially after a great session at the range. I had some bread leftover from having curry the other day and I also found a ribeye steak in the freezer, so why not a cheese steak.

Ingredients:

1 pound ribeye sliced paper thin
6 medium shiitake mushrooms (for that extra umami flavor, you can use regular button mushrooms too)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1 onion sliced thin
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium size (6-8 inches) french bread/roll

Directions:

Saute onions in olive oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper on medium high heat. Cook until onions are translucent and caramelized. Set aside.

In a separate pan add canola oil and turn heat to high. Add beef, mushrooms, garlic, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook for about 3-5 minutes. Set aside.

Cheese sauce ingredients:

1 teaspoon flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream (you can substitute whole milk)
1/4 cup grated pepper jack cheese
2 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper

Directions:

On low-medium heat, add butter and flour (mix well). Then add cream and continue stirring while adding a little bit of the pepper jack cheese, wait for the cheese to melt then continue adding more cheese. Continue this method with the Parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bringing it all together:

Toast your bread until it is crisp on the outside, then slice the bread in the middle (length wise) leaving the end attached. Add beef and mushroom mixture, add cheese sauce, add onions, then more cheese sauce. Serve with pickles or pepperoncinis.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.8

Chicken Quesadillas with Fire Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

I'll be going out of town this weekend so no cooking for me. But I wanted to post a little something you can do with leftover tortillas. You might have to actually go but the tomatillos though, I'll be surprised if you had leftovers of that. Everyone enjoy your weekend and if you have questions, comments or request feel free to post a comment.

Chicken quesadilla with fire roasted tomatillo salsa

Salsa:

5 tomatillos
3 garlic cloves
1 large jalapeno
14 grape tomatoes
Several sprigs cilantro
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

Place 1st 3 items on foil and underneath the broiler until charred. Flip until other side is charred as well. I even used a torch afterwards to ensure charredness (if that's a word). Add ingredients to food processor and blend until all items are thoroughly mixed. Add salt to desired taste. Add roughly chopped cilantro and thinly sliced tomatoes and mix well.

Chicken quesadilla:

3 chicken breast
1/2 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

Tortillas
Cheddar cheese
Monterrey jack cheese

Directions:

Mix 1st 8 ingredients well and cook in oven at 375° for about 10 minutes or until chicken is done.

Place 1st type of cheese on tortilla, then add chicken (cut in strips), then add other cheese and place another tortilla on top and cook for 5-7 minutes at 375°. Cut into quarters or eighths and serve.

I also like to add sour cream on top as well, this will help to tone down the heat from the salsa. If you don't have any sour cream, you can do like me and make something similar it really is a "sour" cream.

1/2 lemon juice and zest
1/4 heavy cream
Pinch of salt

Mix well until it starts to thicken and then serve on top of quesadilla.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.2