​Fajita Seasoning and Dry Rub

Note: Makes 1/2 cup. Store in a tightly sealed container in a dark dry place for up to six months.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
1 tablespoon fresh grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
2 teaspoons dried oregano, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon jalapeño chile powder

Directions

Toast peppercorns, cumin, and coriander in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and add lemon zest. Stir to mix. Transfer to a spice grinder and grind until fine. Mix with remaining ingredients in a small bowl.

Sprinkle directly on meats, seafood, and vegetables.

Make into a fajita marinade by adding 2 tablespoons to 1/2 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup beer, and 1/4 cup fresh lime juice.

(Based on http://www.nibblemethis.com/2015/03/fajita-seasoning-dry-rub.html) 

Mai Tai

Everyone has a mai tai recipe. This is mine. I’d also be happy to drink one of yours.

Ingredients
1 oz. light rum
1 oz. gold rum
1 oz. Grand Marnier
Juice of a lime
Juice of an orange (1/4 cup)
1/4 cup pineapple juice
mint leaves

Directions
Mix all ingredients thoroughly and pour over ice in tall glass. Garnish with a wedge of fresh pineapple, mint leaves, or lime wedge.

Red Wine Sauce

I recently cooked a 2-1/2″, 2 pound bone-in ribeye steak. To guild the lily I made two sauces. The other one was an avocado crema — good, but better used elsewhere. This one was perfect.

Ingredients
5 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, skinned and coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped or crushed
2 cloves garlic, crushed or pressed
1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon dried sage leaves, crushed
1 whole bay leaf
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 (750 ml bottle or 3 cups) dry red wine
2 cups or a 14 ounce can beef stock
1 teaspoon grape jelly
1 pinch of salt

Method

1. In a large frying pan melt 3 of the 5 tablespoons of the butter and add the onion, carrot, celery, rosemary, sage, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Cook over a high heat, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until the onions begin to brown. That’s why we use a non-stick pan, when you reduce liquid this much, it can really make a mess of other pans. By the way, the mix of 2 parts onion, to 1 part carrot, and 1 part celery is called a mirepoix (MEER-a-pwah), and is a foundation of French cooking and is common in soups, stuffings, and, of course, sauces.
2. Add the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for about 3 minutes until it begins to darken. Add the wine and the beef stock. Boil for 30 minutes. Pour everything through a strainer into a saucepan, and squeeze the juices through the strainer with a ladle or whatever you used to stir the veggies.
3. Boil over high heat until it is reduced to about 1 cup and keep an eye on things so they don’t burn. Add the grape jelly and stir until it is thoroughly dissolved. Turn off the heat, taste and add salt if necessary. It will not be thick and goopy like ketchup, it will be more like egg nog in thickness. If you are not planning on using the sauce immediately or don’t plan to use it all, you can store it in the fridge or freezer.
4. When you need the sauce, warm it and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, and when it is thoroughly melted, swirl it around with a spoon and serve immediately. Do not whisk in the butter, just swirl it. This is called “mounting it” with butter (yes, that’s the correct technical term). If you feel decadent, add another tablespoon.

Optional. Taste and add a dash of balsamic vinegar and splash hot sauce just for the fun of it.

(from Amazing Ribs) 

Peach Ice Cream

My sister and brother-in-law live in California’s Central Valley. In season, it’s stone fruit country. While grocery stores seek uniform sized, unblemished fruit, anyone can drive around and find “culls” — perfectly edible and delicious — for next to nothing. With this bounty available, my sister decided to develop the perfect recipe for peach ice cream. This is it. (If you’re concerned about raw eggs, use pasteurized eggs.) 

Ingredients

3 eggs
1¾ cups sugar
5 fresh peaches, peeled and chopped
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt

Directions

In a large bowl, mix eggs and sugar until smooth. Puree peaches, take 2½ cups and mix with egg-sugar mixture. Stir in remaining ingredients. Freeze in ice cream maker. Remove from ice cream maker, put ice cream in a container, and place in freezer to harden.

Note: Any fruit may be substituted.

Orange Créme Caramel

​You never know where you’re going to find a recipe, right? This was in the Costco Connection magazine this month. It called for oranges from South Africa, but I have an abundant Valencia orange tree in the backyard.
__________

The creamy, rich texture of this dessert is perfectly complimented and balanced with the bright, citrus flavors of oranges.

Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

4 oranges
1 3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3 1/4 cups whole milk
3 whole eggs plus 3 large egg yolks
Raspberries and fresh mint for garnish

DIRECTIONS

Finely zest 3 oranges, then squeeze the juice from orange to measure 1 cup. Pour juice through sieve into saucepan to remove pulp. Add water and 1¼ cup sugar to saucepan with juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, only stirring to dissolve sugar, then DO NOT STIR. Continue boiling and brush any crystals that form on the sides of pan with a pastry brush that has been dipped in cold water. This will stop sugar from crystallizing. Swirl mixture in pan until color turns golden, then to an amber color. Immediately divide caramel between eight 6oz ramekins. Set ramekins aside. In a separate saucepot, bring milk and zest to slight boil over medium low heat then turn heat off and let zest infuse into milk for 10 minutes.

Whisk whole eggs, yolks, and remaining ½ cup sugar in a bowl. Ladle warm milk into egg mixture and combine. Pour mixture through a sieve to remove zests. Divide among the caramelized ramekins and place ramekins into a roasting pan.

Place roasting pan in the oven, with door open, add just enough hot water to the roasting pan to come half way up the ramekins. Close oven door and bake for 45–55 minutes until custard is set. Lift ramekins from roasting pan onto a cooling rack. With a towel in hand, carefully run a knife around side of ramekin to loosen, then allow to cool completely.

For service, invert molds onto plate. Leave ramekin inverted on plate until custard falls out on its own with caramel sliding down the sides. Garnish with raspberries and fresh mint.

Bourbon Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients
1/2 cup ketchup (120ml)
1/2 cup homemade chicken stock or store-bought low-sodium chicken broth (120ml)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar (60ml), plus more if needed
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon bourbon (75ml), divided
1 small onion, grated on the large holes of a box grater (about 4 ounces; 115g)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (30ml)
1 tablespoon dark molasses (15ml)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (15ml)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (15ml)
2 teaspoons hot sauce (10ml), plus more if needed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
In a small saucepan, stir together ketchup, chicken stock, sugar, vinegar, 1/4 cup bourbon (60ml), onion, Dijon, molasses, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and black pepper. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about one-third (sauce should be glaze-like). Stir in the remaining tablespoon of bourbon and add more vinegar or hot sauce to taste, if desired.

Cooled barbecue sauce can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

(from Serious Eats Summer Nachos) 

Lemon Brownies

Lemon has always been my favorite dessert flavor. In addition, I’m lucky to have citrus – including a Meyer lemon tree – growing in my backyard. This is a good post-BBQ dessert made from ingredients that I always have on hand.Ingredients:

Brownies

95 g all-purpose flour
150 g white sugar
115 g unsalted butter, softened
3 g sea salt
3 eggs
30 ml lemon juice
6 g lemon zest, plus more for icing

Icing

125 g confectioners’ sugar
60 ml lemon juice
1 ml vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease an 8-inch square baking dish.

Beat flour, white sugar, butter, and sea salt together in a bowl using an electric mixer until well mixed. Whisk eggs, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon lemon zest together in a separate bowl; mix into flour mixture and beat on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared baking dish.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes. Cool until bottom of dish is warm to the touch.

Whisk confectioners’ sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice, vanilla extract, and lemon zest (to taste) together in a bowl until smooth; spread over brownies.

from: Lemon Brownies

Midyett BBQ Rub

This rub made great spareribs, with a crunchy crust and really good flavor. I usually let seasonings sit on the meat for awhile, but I only dusted them to sit while the fire got up to temp. Five hours in the Weber Kettle at 240° untended (using my Slow n Sear). Perfect.

INGREDIENTS:
2 parts good sea salt
1 part black pepper
1/4-1/2 part sumac
1/3-1/2 part ground coffee
1/4-1/2 part garlic powder
1/4-1/2 part cocoa powder

[Note: I used the larger quantities of each ingredient.] 

Special equipment: Spice grinder.

Ingredient info: Sumac is widely available at Middle Eastern grocery stores and spice specialty stores. For the pepper, Midyett tries to use freshly ground Tellicherry; for the coffee, he recommends a darker roast.

PREPARATION:

Combine ingredients and grind as fine as possible. “Try not to inhale the mixture when you open the grinder, or you will pay a price,” Midyett warns. Coat the meat entirely with the resulting blend before cooking.

from: The Steve Albini-approved Midyett Rub Will Change How You Cook Meat

Thai-Style Hot Wings ​| Chris Schlesinger

Ingredients
4 pounds chicken wings (tips discarded)
¼ c. good quality curry powder
kosher salt and fresh-cracked black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
2 tablespoons fresh garlic, minced
¼ cups long Thai chilis, minced
¼ cup fresh lime juice
¼ cup fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
¼ cup fresh mint, chopped

Directions

Rub wings with curry powder, salt, pepper and sesame oil. Grill over medium-high heat, 5 to 8 minutes, turning often until chicken is cooked through. 

Toss all remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Place cooked wings in bowl. Toss until wings are well coated with sauce. 

Serves 4 to 6.

Hatch Chile Sauce

​We’re going to Santa Fe on vacation in a couple of weeks. I love the food in New Mexico, and so, when I was doing an inventory of my freezer the other day and I found some roasted Hatch chiles, I decided to make up a batch of this sauce.  There is no definitive recipe for this sauce, and they’re all delicious, so change it up to your own taste. You can leave it chunky, or puree it to use as an enchilada sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1-1/2 cups pork stock (or 1-1⁄2 cups chicken or vegetable stock) 
• 1 cup chopped roasted and peeled Hatch chiles (remove veins and seeds if you like it milder) 
• 1⁄4 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

Directions

1. In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, sauté the onion and garlic in the oil until tender (about 3 minutes)
2. Stir in the flour, cumin, salt and pepper and cook over medium heat, stirring, for 2 minutes
3. Stir in the stock and simmer until thick and smooth
4. Stir in the chiles and oregano

Use immediately, or let cool and store in refrigerator, covered, for up to one day. 

To serve, reheat thoroughly. 

Photo credit: thefitfork.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/jennifer-fisher-thefitfork-hatch-green-chile-sauce.jpg (because I forgot to take a picture of my own)