Hatch Chile and Beef Chorizo Chili

October has finally arrived and that means comfort foods. I realize fall in Southern California isn't as obvious as the brilliant fall colors of the northeast. Southern California fall is definitely more subtle. The temps still hang in the upper 80's and even 90's on some days, but you need to look around to really see fall outside of the blinding high temps. Fall is in the sun that doesn't hang as high. It's in the long shadows below the trees. It's in the shorter days and chilly mornings. Our trees really don't drop their leaves until December and January, but if you look real hard, you'll see a few early leaves working hard to give us bursts of yellows, reds, and oranges. These little signs of fall speak to this Socal girl and inspires me to slow braise meats, bake bread, and make soup... or in this case chili. This Hatch Chile and Beef Chorizo Chili is spicy and comforting and perfect for a cool or warm-ish fall evening. Enjoy!
 

Hatch Chile and Beef Chorizo Chili

Serves 12

3 lbs. lean ground beef
2 tubes beef chorizo
2 yellow onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups Trader Joe's Roasted Hatch Chiles®, chopped
3/4 cup roasted red bell peppers, chopped
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
3 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp Penzey's® Epazote
3 14 oz. cans S & W® Black Chili Beans
2 14 oz. cans S & W® Regular Chili Beans
salt and pepper
Green onions, sliced (garnish)

Brown ground beef and drain the fat. Add chorizo, onions, hatch chiles, roasted red peppers, garlic tomatoes, tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, epazote and beans. Simmer on low for a minimum of 1 hour. The longer it cooks the better. I placed it in a Slow Cooker on low for 4 hours and it was incredible. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with sour cream and sliced green onions.

Other soups to try:

White Bean, Sausage and Kale Soup

Rustic Minestrone

Pork Verde and Hominy Stew 

Bloody Burger Bites

Remember a few year's ago when Burger King® came out with their Halloween Whopper® with the black bun? It was so popular that it completely sold out in a week so I never had a chance to try one. It's been two years and I'm still waiting for them to bring that baby back so I can give it a try. Not being one to wait any longer, I decided to create my own red bun version of Halloween Burgers with these Bloody Burger Bites. Made with homemade slider buns, grilled onions, and a decadently delicious bloody burger sauce. Four perfectly messy bites of this sinister slider will be a crowd pleaser, just remember to have lots of napkins on hand.
These are definitely on the menu at my Halloween party this year. Make the buns, sauce and onions ahead of your party and then assemble right before party time! Easy and delicious! Happy Halloween!

Bloody Burger Bites

Makes 24

Slider Buns
(adapted recipe from Taste of Home)

2 T active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
3 T vegetable oil
3 T sugar
1-1 1/2 t red food coloring
1 egg
1 t. salt
3- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, mix yeast, warm water, food coloring, sugar and oil and let sit for 5 minutes. Measure out flour and salt in another small bowl and set aside. Add egg to the yeast mixture and then add flour/salt and mix until a soft dough forms. On a floured surface, knead dough for about 5 minutes. 

Using a kitchen scale measure out 0.5 oz of dough for each slider bun. Roll into a ball and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Let rise for 15 minutes or until the dough doubles. Note: If you'd like to add sesame seeds to the tops of your buns, brush tops of buns with an egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds prior to baking.
Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.

Bloody Burger Sauce

(adapted recipe from Teri Appleton Villanueva)

3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 T soy sauce
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
ground pepper
red food coloring

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Grilled Onions
4 yellow onions, sliced into rings
3 T unsalted butter 
salt and pepper (to taste)

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onions and cook until browned and softened. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Burger Bites
2 lbs 80/20 ground beef
seasoned salt/pepper
garlic powder

Make 24 small patties. Season with seasoned salt, pepper and garlic powder. Grill or pan fry.
Assemble Bloody Burger bites with generous amounts of Bloody Burger Sauce and grilled onions! Arrange on a platter and serve with Bloody Marys! 

Last Bite...

 For Halloween Decorating Ideas click here.

Skewered Epidermis (Skirt Steak Skewers)

Okay, so this recipe is not really a Halloween dish all by itself. These skewers can be made anytime of year. They are really great on the grill in summer, but anytime I create a recipe, I immediately go to the dark side and think..."How can I make this for Halloween?" For this one, getting it Halloween ready is merely some fun plating with these cool images from the Internet, that I used as placemats of sorts. Skewered Epidermis is the perfect Halloween party food because they make for easy mingling and stand up eating. Drink in one hand Skewered Epidermis in the other...no problem. The meat is so tender you can bite it right off the stick. No steak knives needed. Enjoy your Summer of Halloween!

Skewered Epidermis (Skirt Steak Skewers)

Makes ~10-12 skewers

2 lbs skirt steak

Cut skirt steak, against the grain into 10-12 even, 1.5-2-inch strips and put into a re-closeable plastic bag. Prepare the marinade.

 

Marinade
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 T fresh ginger, grated
1 T sesame oil
2 green onions, light green and white parts, sliced
2 T brown sugar

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl to make the marinade. Add marinade to a beef and marinate for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator.  Soak skewers in water while the meat marinates. Once you are ready to grill, skewer the beef strips and grill until done. About 3-4 minutes per side. Set them out for your guests and watch them disappear! Enjoy!

Other recipes to try:

Mummified Meatloaf

Meat Pies

Fiendish Fingers

Short Rib and Bok Choy Soup

I've seen the words 'lazy day' and 'Cozy Sunday' a lot in blogs and magazine articles lately. It is fall afterall, and I can honestly say I'm in desperate need of a lazy cozy weekend!  I feel like there's always something that has to be done, people to see, events to attend. Since weekends are our only time to spend together as a family, I'm feeling the pinch, along with my family, because I'm taking a 13 week Pro Chef Series which meets every Saturday and Sunday from 8:30am-12:30 but usually I don't get home until after 1pm. I get home and I'm hot, tired, and smelling of each week's culinary ingredient. Last Sunday, was pork class. I got home and my oldest son said, "What sinks like horrible food?" 

Yes...he's been a real shit lately. He not happy that I'm gone every weekend until the afternoon. I get it. And it is true, I do smell like chicken, beef, garlic, onions, grilling, oil, pork...you name it! Just wait until Fish and Shellfish class. But seriously after 4 hours of cooking, my clothes, my hair, skin, and even my bra stinks like food and dare I admit, a hint of sweat. It's a ton of work and A LOT of fun and most importantly, I LOVE IT! I'm learning so much and the food has been out-of-this-world delicious! Don't worry, I'll blog some of Chef Teri's amazing recipes and share some cool techniques I've learned along the way. :)

But that brings me back to Lazy. Cozy. Sunday. I need one and my family needs one. I have no class the weekend after Thanksgiving so I'm scheduling my Lazy Cozy Weekend with my family. Just me, my husband and my boys. Nothing to do. Nowhere to be. 

I'll turn off my phone, wear PJ's all day, make a big pot of soup, watch old movies, nerf guns, and play twister with the kids. Hey...who knows, maybe we'll go for a long walk or a bike ride...or maybe not...we're supposed to be LAZY right? Of course, the cozy part is completely dependent on SoCal weather. :)

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a delicious soup for your next lazy weekend!

Short Rib and Bok Choy Soup

Recipe slightly adapted from Three Beans on a String

Serves 8

2 pound short ribs, with or without bones

6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
1 Roma tomato, quartered
1 t. Chinese Five Spice
1 Habanero chile, halved and seeded
1/2 cup rice wine or sherry
1/2 cup soy sauce
12 cups chicken broth
1 lb. baby bok choy, sliced in 1-inch strips
10 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup green onions, chopped

In a large stockpot, cover the short ribs with water and bring to a boil. Immediately turn off the heat and remove the beef and set aside. Discard water and wash the stock pot. This helps make a clearer broth. Return the par-boiled short ribs to the clean stockpot and add garlic, ginger, onion, tomato, five spice, Habanero chile, rice wine, soy sauce and chicken broth. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 3 hours or until meat is tender. Remove from heat and allow the soup to sit for an additional hour. Next, remove the beef from the pot and pour the broth through a sieve to strain out the vegetables while collecting the broth in another clean stock pot. Add beef back to the strained broth.
Skim any fat from the surface of the broth. (I refrigerated the soup overnight and removed the hardened fat from the surface)

Bring the soup back up to a boil and then add the mushrooms and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the Bok Choy and blanch for another 2 minutes.
Ladle into bowls and top soup with bean sprouts, green onions and cilantro.

Other Soup recipes to try:
   Rustic Minestrone                  Chicken Pot Pie Soup              Spicy Beef Stew

Creole Beef Grillades

I woke up cold and reached for a blanket that wasn't there. The summer heat continued well into fall so I had't pulled the blankets out of the closet. Unable to warm up, I got out of bed, looked at the clock, and I was instantly happy. Not just about finally getting cooler weather but because I realized I'd slept through the night for the first time in months! It was after 6 A.M. Hooray! My usual night time routine was to wake up at 3-4 A.M. no matter the time I went to bed...and I STAY awake. I'm completely unable to fall back to sleep. It sucks! 


But today, I felt renewed and rested. Also, I was excited because I was home from school today. No PTA. No volunteering. No meetings. No problems. No people. Just time for me! Time in my kitchen. Time in my home. Time to tend to the things that I enjoy...Time to cook! And cooking is what I did. 
I made these ridiculously delicious Creole Beef Grillades. I experimented with this idea a few weeks ago with a cheap cut of beef and it turned out amazing.

I see a lot of affordable cuts of beef at the grocery store but I'm always unsure as how to cook them and have them taste good. Of course braising is the only way that came to mind for cheap cuts but I wanted something with a flavorful punch that's not spicy hot.  I tend to make food spicy for flavor, but I didn't want this meal to be spicy...I wanted my kids to eat it. Creole flavors came to mind. So with a full shaker of Creole seasoning in my cupboard and some beef chuck steaks, this is what I came up with.  
The ultimate cold weather comfort food. Happy Fall!  

Creole Beef Grillades

Serves 6

6-8 beef chuck steaks
1 c. flour (for dredging)
3 T olive oil, divided
1/2 c. medium onion, diced
1/2 c. red bell pepper, diced 
1/2 c. celery, diced 
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. red wine
3 T tomato paste
2 c. beef broth
2-3 bay leaves
1 1/2 T Creole Seasoning
pepper (to taste)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Dredge steaks in flour and set aside.

In a large skillet, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, onion, celery, red bell pepper and garlic and saute until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove vegetables from pan and set aside. Add remaining 2 T olive oil to the skillet and over high heat, brown the steaks about 5 minutes on each side. Remove steaks from skillet and place in a roasting pan.

Prepare Braising Gravy 
De-glaze the skillet with red wine, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato paste, beef broth, bay leaves, Creole Seasoning and sauteed vegetables and heat to a simmer. About 8-10 minutes. 
Pour the gravy mixture over browned steaks in the roasting pan. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1.5-2 hours or until meat is tender. (Time will vary depending on the thickness of the steaks.) 

Remove from oven. Let rest for 10 minutes and serve over mashed potatoes or Grits for authentic Creole fare. Generously ladle gravy over the top and enjoy!
 
Other recipes to try:
Braised Short Ribs             Honey Butter Chicken               Greek Meatballs

Braised Short Ribs

The best part of cool weather outside, is the great things you can slow cook inside, like Braised Short Ribs. Here's a recipe I found many years ago from my favorite cooking magazine, Cuisine at Home. I've blogged a few recipes from this awesome magazine before, like Greek Meatballs, Garden Fresh Gazpacho, Rice Vera Cruz and Tofu Bruschetta. Cuisine at Home is great because it gives simple, important tips and techniques and of course it uses easy to find ingredients. In this recipe, Cuisine at Home goes over Braising basics which I'll summarize for those who may have never braised before. When I first started to cook, I learned the most from my mistakes, but when it comes to expensive cuts of beef, (because beef is expensive on my budget, no matter what the cut it) it's nice to get a heads up and avoid some common errors. Braising is the technique of slow cooking meats in liquid. There are a few steps that are important so the meat is brown and not gray and that the gravy is complex and delicious and not burnt tasting. So here are some tips from Cuisine at Home that has helped me make this wonderful dish perfect every time.
  
The first step is Browning the meat. This step adds color to the meat and renders some of the fat from the meat. The oven temperature alone won't brown the meat to a dark brown, so don't skip this step. Once you finish browning all the meat and set aside, it is best to pour off all the rendered fat and any burnt flour from the pan. The burnt bits will make the sauce taste scorched. You will have some bits of meat stuck to the bottom of your dutch oven, this is perfectly okay and necessary to add wonderful flavor when you braise.

Step two is Deglazing the pan. After browning the meat and setting aside, you will saute your vegetables with various ingredients in the same dutch oven and then you'll add flour to the cooked vegetables. The flour will coat the vegetables. Next, you will add your flavored liquids and deglaze the pan. The brown bits on the bottom of the pan will be dissolved and incorporated into the sauce and the added flour will act to thicken the sauce.

Step three is Braising. Add the browned meat, in a single layer, bone-side up in the braising liquid. Cover pot with a tight fitting lid and cook in the oven for 2-3 hours. The tight fitting lid helps keep the moisture and heat in the pot which breaks down the fat and connective tissues in the short ribs and makes it fall off the bone, delicious!

There you have it! Easy as can be and incredibly delicious! Happy Braising.

Braised Short Ribs 

(recipe from Cuisine at Home, Oct 2005)

Prepare:
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup carrot, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 T. garlic, minced
1 bay leaf

Combine; Dredge and brown in 1T of olive oil;Remove
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 t. kosher salt
1 t. black pepper
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
2 lb bone-in short ribs

Saute:
1 T. olive oil
Prepared vegetables
1 T. tomato paste
2 T. reserved dredging flour

Deglaze with; Stir in and Braise:
1-14 oz can beef broth
3/4 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup Marsala
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, halved (not packed in oil)
1 T. Worcestershire Sauce
Browned Short Ribs

Add:
2 cups crimini Mushrooms, quartered
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Prepare onion, carrot, celery and garlic; set aside.

Combine flour, salt, pepper and cayenne in a resealable plastic bag. Add short ribs, one at a time and shake to coat evenly (reserve unused flour). Heat 1 T olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat.  Add dredged short ribs, bone side up, and brown slowly, about 8 minutes. Turn ribs and brown other side for 8 minutes. Remove from the pan; pour off all the fat.

Saute vegetables, garlic and bay leaf with the tomato paste in oil until soft, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add flour; stir until vegetables are coated.

Deglaze with broth, wine and Marsala; stir in tomatoes and Worcestershire, and bring to a simmer. Arrange ribs in sauce, bone side up, cover and braise in the oven for 2-3 hours. 

Add mushrooms and return pot to the oven; braise another 15 minutes. 

Serve with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and a roasted vegetable if your choice. I made some Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Broccoli with Garlic. I love garlic. Enjoy!

Greek Meatballs

Meatballs are not very glamorous, that's for sure. You rarely see meatballs on the menu of a nice restaurant because it's pretty hard to class up a meatball. Personally, I love meatballs. They are fun and easy to prepare and they just taste good. Whether they are made from ground beef, chicken or turkey they are always satisfying. The bonus is that my kids will eat ground beef anything so they like meatballs too.
One of my favorite foods is Greek food. I love the flavors from the Mediterranean. The feta cheese, tomatoes, couscous and of course the olives. I love dishes with any and all of these ingredients. So when I was flipping through some old Cuisine at Home magazines, I was excited to have found this Greek Meatball recipe. It was the perfect marriage of food and flavor for me. Not to mention that it was just plain delicious! I made these meatballs with ground chuck but if you're looking for a more traditional Greek ingredient, you could also substitute with ground lamb. Enjoy!

For another meatball recipe, try my Spicy Asian Meatball Soup.

Greek Meatballs  (recipe from Cuisine at Home Magazine, Aug 2005)
Makes 12 Meatballs

1 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
2 T scallions, minced
1 t. kosher salt
2 t. dried oregano leaves
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 lb. ground chuck
2 T. olive oil
3/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted, halved
1 T. garlic, minced
1 t. red pepper flakes
6 cups tomatoes, quartered or 2 cans whole tomatoes (28oz. each)
Salt and pepper to taste
chopped cucumber
Lemon zest

Combine crumbs, milk, feta, parsley, scallions, salt, oregano and egg in a mixing bowl. Stir in the ground chuck and mix lightly but well. Shape the mixture into balls about 2" in diameter. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high. Add meatballs and brown all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and keep warm. Add olives, garlic and red pepper flakes to the pan and saute for 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and cook 10 minutes. (I cooked the tomatoes longer, about 30 minutes to help cut the acidity of the tomatoes) Season with salt and pepper, return meatballs to the pan and simmer 5 minutes, or until cooked through. Serve over couscous, topped with feta dressing, cucumber and lemon zest.

Lemon Couscous
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 T unsalted butter
1/2 t. kosher salt
3/4 cup dry plain couscous

Bring broth, lemon juice, butter and salt to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat, add couscous, stir and cover. Let stand 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

Feta Yogurt Dressing
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Cover and chill until ready to use.