#95 Argentina's Burger with Chimichurri Sauce

This was very easy to make. With only four ingredients, it was almost fail proof for me. We loved it very much. The big flavor comes from Cumin. The meat flavored with cumin + Chimichurri = a glorious combination, it did not disappoint!

BURGER (Argentine Style)

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Put the ground beef into the medium bowl and sprinkle with the cumin. Season with salt and pepper. Using your hands, gently mix until just combined.
2. Divide the mixture into 4 equal portions. Shape each piece into a 4-inch patty.
3. Grill until cooked as desired. Serve with lettuce, onions, and if you like, pita bread and tomatoes. 

 Recipe adapted from Abigail Johnson Dodge

It was a great dinner. :)

#88 Kofta Kebab

If you have a bunch of parsley and ground beef or lamb, and is looking for a good dish to make, aside from the same ol'  hamburger, this is one of the most delicious ways to enjoy it. This dish requires 6 different fragrant spices. I was a little skeptical because I am so accustomed to putting very few spices in our food, but I went ahead and spooned and then mixed it in by hand with all the rest of the ingredients. The result? Absolutely divine! Very easy, very tasty with a wonderful flavor that I can now proudly say, "no longer unknown to me!". Since the grilling season has officially started, glad to have discovered how to make this, and surely Kofta Kebabs will be made again many times. Kofta or Kafta, derived from  Persian kūfta is a Middle Eastern, South Asian and Balkan meatball of meatloaf. Usually made with ground lamb, beef, chicken or pork. Kebab, also called kebap, kabab, kebob, kabob, kibob, kebhav, or kephav is a variety of skewered meals (lamb, beef, fish, chicken or goat) that originated from the Middle Eastern countries. Now it is very popular in several European, Southern and Central Asian countries. I made tzatziki to eat with the fragrant kebabs, and the mix of flavors is just amazing. We ate it with rice since we did not have pita bread..(I'm excited to try to make it this week, good luck to me! Ha!).. Traditionally, this is best enjoyed with pita, yogurt sauce, some fresh sliced tomatoes and cucumber. I can see clearly how my next experience with this dish will be. Yum! :) 

Yield: Serves 6

KOFTA KEBAB


Ingredients:

4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound ground lamb or beef
3 tablespoons grated onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
10 or more bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes

Directions:

1. Mash the garlic into a paste with the salt using a mortar and pestle or the flat side of a chef's knife on your cutting board. Mix the garlic into the lamb along with the onion, parsley, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne pepper, ginger, and pepper in a mixing bowl until well blended. Form the mixture into balls, depending on how big you like your kebabs . Form each ball around the tip of a skewer, flattening into a 2 inch oval; repeat with the remaining skewers. Place the kebabs onto a baking sheet, cover, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes, or up to 12 hours.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat, and lightly oil grate.
3. Cook the skewers on the preheated grill, turning occasionally, until the lamb or beef has cooked to your desired degree of doneness, about 6 minutes for medium.

Recipe adapted from SRKELZ, contributor at allrecipes.com

 

 

Portion control is phrase that was suddenly deleted from my vocabulary while having Kofta Kebabs. :)

 It smells so good, appetizing and delicious! :)

#73 Barbecue Pizza with Jalapenos and Fresh Mozarella

If you like barbecue sauce on your pizza...you will looove this. I had a little problem making the sauce for the pizza because I only had dijon mustard. I used it anyway, and because Dijon mustard has vinegar in it, I skipped the vinegar that is needed in the sauce. But I will post the original recipe. This pizza, using my favorite recipe for the dough, is crunchy, spicy and sooo good!

Yield: serves 6 people


Barbecue Pizza with Jalapenos and Fresh Mozarella


Ingredients:

3/4 ounce chicken breast cutlets
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Cooking spray
Pizza Dough see recipe here
2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup unsalted ketchup
3 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 cup sliced red onion
1/4 cup pickled Jalapeno slices
4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves


Directions:

1. Place a pizza stone or a heavy baking sheet in oven. Preheat oven to 450 F degrees (leave pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven as it preheats)
2. Sprinkle both sides of chicken evenly with black pepper and salt. Combine brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder and cumin in a small bowl, stirring well to combine. Set aside 2 teaspoons spice mixture; rub the remaining spice mixture evenly over all sides of chicken. Heat a grill pan over medium high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; saute 3 minutes on each side or until the  chicken is cone. Let chicken stand 10 minutes; slice thinly against the grain.
3. Roll dough into a 14x9 -inch rectangle (or a 14-inch circle) on a lightly floured surface; pierce dough with cooking spray. Carefully remove pizza stone from oven. Sprinkle cornmeal over pizza stone; place dough on pizza stone.
4. Bake at 450F degrees for 9 minutes. Combine reserved 2 teaspoons spice mixture, ketchup, mustard and vinegar. (I substituted the yellow mustard with 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard and omitted the vinegar). In a small saucepan, heat the combine mixture over medium heat. Bring mixture to a simmer; cook 3 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring occasionally. Remove partially cooked crust from oven; spread ketchup mixture evenly over crust leaving a 1/2 inch border around the edges. Top with chicken, onion, jalapenos and cheese. Bake at 450F degrees for 10 minutes or until cheese is browned. Sprinkle with cilantro. Slice and serve.

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light.

 

A slice of LOVE goes a long long way...

#69 Grilled Eggplants with Asian Inspired Sauce

I miss grilled eggplants, so this weekend, I bought Chinese eggplants and grilled it. I have been looking for a particular variety of eggplants here in the US for 6 years now, I don't know what it is called, but I will know it is the one when I see it, and so far no luck. Eggplants we grow organically at home, long and very thin,  picked when they're very young are sooo delicious. My Mama always has a basket full of eggplants in her kitchen straight from her garden. Round, long, short, thin, fat, green, purple..you name it, she has it all. :)  Back home, I used a simple soy sauce with crushed fresh chili peppers as a dip to a deliciously grilled or steamed eggplant, it's the only sauce for grilled eggplants that I know of. Since I'm just starting to discover the many ways to cook it, I conveniently chose soy sauce as the base for my dip and I added a few ingredients. After making the sauce, I poured it all over the eggplants. Although the sauce was good,  it was an "ok" dish because the eggplants were not the best.  I will keep looking for very young eggplants, I hope I'll get lucky at the farmer's market.


GRILLED EGGPLANTS WITH ASIAN INSPIRED SAUCE


Ingredients:

1 eggplant, sliced
1 stalk green onions, chopped
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Grill sliced eggplants.
2. Mix the remaining ingredients. Then pour it on the eggplants, or use it as a dip.

Eggplant is also known as "Aubergine" in French and British English. It also known as brinjal, brinjal eggplant, melongene or guinea squash. Native to the Indian subcontinent, they were also cultivated in Southern and Eastern Asia since prehistory. The kind of eggplant that I am looking for is probably the Chinese or Hongkong variety, but since they are harvested when mature, they do not taste the same as how I remember. So I guess I will be really lucky if I even find it at the farmer's markets. Maybe it is time to get a pot and  plant one or two. :)

 

I was that hungry for it. :)

#59 Barbecue Chicken with honey sauce

Our second recipe for the grilling season. Chicken Barbecue with honey sauce. Chicken! I am always careful with handling chicken meat, especially grilling because unlike beef and seafood, it needs to be cooked thoroughly. It was a nice warm weekday evening, we had some fresh unfrozen chicken thighs in the fridge, and a massive craving for barbecue that instructed me to fire up the grill. We searched for a barbecue sauce recipe and we found one that had great reviews but needed so many ingredients. The most that I have ever seen..Really? Too much for a barbecue sauce! But I had to give this recipe a try. We needed it. No pain, no gain, I thought. Well, we certainly gained a delicious barbecue dinner for all the effort. :) Chicken was moist, loved the sauce! The recipe below is enough to use for basting, as a marinade and  for the dipping sauce for 3-4 pounds of chicken.



BARBECUE CHICKEN with HONEY SAUCE


Ingredients:

1 cup honey
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
1 tablespoon meat tenderizer
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup steak sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
finely chopped onions
3-4 pounds chicken


Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients. 
2. Divide into 2 parts, for basting and for dipping. 
3. Cover the one for dipping and refrigerate until ready to use.
4. Grill chicken meat and baste frequently until meat is well cooked. 

Recipe adapted from Kimberly D., contributor at www.allrecipes.com

Most etymologists believe that barbecue derives from the word barabicu found in the language of the Taino people of the Carribean and the Timicua of Florida, and entered European languages in the form barbacoa.  The word translates as "sacred fire pit." The word describes a grill for cooking meat, consisting of a wooden platform resting on sticks.  (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbecue). 

I wanted to find out the history of honey barbecue sauce but couldn't find anything except an article that wrote about how the Koreans like to add honey in their barbecue sauces. There are many barbecue sauce recipes from all over the world. I'm excited to discover new ones to add to the remaining 306 dishes that we will prepare. It was also great learning a lot about honey- it's production, history and properties. A Mesolithic rock painting found in Valencia, Spain is an evidence that shows ancient honey collection atleast 8,000 years ago. Very interesting facts we read about honey that I never bothered to learn all this time, even though honey is added to my coffee every morning. Now we know more. We learn something new every day and we love it.

#54 Brazil's Churrasco

It is that season again! I love cooking outdoors, such a delight to enjoy great food, great laughs, refreshing drinks, and..easy clean up! :) We start our series of delicious grilling with Brazil's Churrasco. The frequent basting with simple sea salt + garlic + hot water made the meat moist and very delicious!

Brazilian Churrasco


Ingredients:

2 lbs beef tenderloin
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup hot water


Directions:

1.      Preheat grill.
2.      Cut tenderloin into about six pieces.
3.      Reduce heat and place tenderloin pieces on the grill.
4.      As the meat started to cook dissolve the salt in the water and add the garlic.
5.      When the meat is browned on the outside,  baste.
6.      Keep basting throughout until the meat is done.

We learned more about Brazilian food today. We've made the delicious Feijoada. Both Brazilian dishes that we have made so far are so delicious. We learned that the Brazilian diet is composed mainly of fish and other meats, rice and beans. The traditional food of Brazil is a combination of many different cultural influences. The country was colonized by Portugal and the Africans brought their food too during the times of slavery. Many other immigrants from Lebanon, Germany, Italy, Japanese, Spanish and many more brought their food as well. We shall explore more since we also love meat and rice very much.

What a great grilling day it was. I cannot wait for the next one. Happy grilling season to all of us! May this year bring many delicious grilled dishes on our tables. Thanks for reading!

#44 Brazil's Feijoada

We made brown rice and Brazil's Feijoada (pronounced Fay-ZWAH-da). It is a meat and black bean stew, served with rice and orange wedges. Adapted from Julianna Grimes' recipe but I used beef instead of pork, replaced the bacon with the less fattening turkey bacon and omitted the ham. I like how the vinegar gives that slight sourness to the dish. I used sunkist navel and cara cara ( a type of navel) oranges. It's a great dinner meal. We liked it very much!

FEJIOADA


Ingredients:

2 cups dried beans
4 slices turkey bacon
1 pound beef stew meat
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, divided
3 bone-in beef short ribs, trimmed (about 2 pounds)
3 cups finely chopped onions
1 1/4 cups fat free, lower sodium chicken broth
4 garlic cloves,  minced
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 orange wedges


Directions:

Soak beans over night. Place in a small sauce pan, cover with cold water. Bring to boil; cook for two minutes. Remove from heat; drain and cover. 

Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium  heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, crumble. Set aside. 

Sprinkle meat evenly with  1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Increase heat to medium high , add olive oil, sauté meat, turning to brown on all sides. Transfer to electric slow cooker.

Sprinkle rib meat evenly with 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add ribs to skillet, sauté meat, turning to brown all sides. Add ribs in slow cooker. 

Add drained beans, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, onions, broth, garlic cloves and vinegar.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until meat is tender.

Stir in vinegar and crumbled turkey bacon.

Serve with rice and orange wedges on the side.

What we learned today:

• Brazil's official language is Portuguese. The country was a colony of Portugal until September 7, 1822 when they declared it's  independence and became Empire of Brazil.
• We saw lots of pictures of Rio de Janeiro's Cristo Redentor, it is amazing how massive it looks. What beautiful beaches they have. And of course, we also saw carnival pictures. 
• I already know that Brazilians are very nice, very affectionate and very happy people as I had the pleasure of spending many days with Brazilian ladies during my first few years in the United States. One lady in particular is so dear to me, and she opened my eyes to a lot of things..I just have no means of contacting her since she left with her family back to Brazil- if somehow you end up reading this blog...Adrianna, obrigada!! Um biejo! I hope to see you again. :)