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Taquitos
06 Jun 2010 21:12 EDT
Taquitos (aka flautas) the Beadles way isn’t fast food, but nice…and…slow…. El pollo es la llave! (The chicken is the key!)the chicken
- 2 whole chicken breasts, skin and bones intact
sofrito
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 yellow onion, dice
- 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 Tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
- 2 Tbsp tomato ketchup (got this tip from Ingrid Hoffman)
- 1 10-oz can Ro-Tel or equivalent “Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies”
- 1/2 Tbsp adobo seasoning
- ground black pepper to taste
- 1 whole dried guajillo chili (if you like a hotter chili, use it!)
Set a large crockpot to its highest heat level. Add the sofrito ingredients (butter, onion, bell pepper, garlic, cilantro, and ketchup) to the pot. Let them heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted and coats the vegetables.
Season the chicken breasts with pepper and adobo, and add to the crockpot. Pour in the contents of the can of tomatoes and chilies, along with the whole dried chili. Cover and cook in the crock-pot about 6 hours, literally until the meat is falling off the chicken.
Cool the chicken in the refrigerator for a little while until cool enough to pull. Pull the meat from the bones and set aside.
[Bonus: remove the skins, bones, and chili stem from the remaining liquid, and blend it all up until smooth. Save this delicious sauce for your next recipe.]
the taquitos
- 1 cup grated Colby, Monterrey jack, and Cotija (tajo) cheeses
- Buncha flour tortillas
- Vegetable oil sufficient for deep-frying in your favorite pan. We use a cast-iron skillet.
- Chicken, from above
Heat your oil in your favorite frying thing. Place a bit of chicken and a bit of cheese into a tortilla, roll as tight as you can, and put in the pan. Repeat until pan is full. Fry until golden-brown on both sides, turning only once. Place on paper towels to drain the oil. Repeat until you’ve cooked as many as you want.
the meal
Serve fresh, hot taquitos with your favorite condiments. Ours include:
- Salsa, pico de gallo, or picante sauce
- Sour cream
- Frijoles refritos
- Lettuce
You may have a lot of pulled chicken left over. This is good. Put it in the fridge and it’ll be even better the next day!
Texas-style barbecue rub
06 Jun 2010 20:52 EDT
This is a mustard-based rub for beef or pork. It’s not Tex-Mex spicy, rather it’s got a nice peppercorny bite to it. It works best for large cuts of meat that are barbecued with smoke for a few hours. We used hickory smoke.
ingredients
- 1 1/2 Tbsp sea salt (or kosher salt – anything non-iodized)
- 2 Tbsp mixed peppercorns (eg green/white/black/red), medium-coarse grind
- 2 Tbsp garlic powder (not garlic salt)
- 4 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp Colman’s mustard (or other dry mustard)
- 1 Tbsp Hungarian paprika
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin seed
The above amounts were for a 4-lb pork loin. Adjust the amounts in the same proportions if you use more meat.
Wings
06 Jun 2010 20:40 EDT
ingredients
- 2 dozen uncooked chicken wings, thawed (you can buy them frozen in 4-lb. bags like breasts)
- vegetable oil spray
- sea salt
- ground black pepper
Buffalo Sauce
- 1/4 cup Trappey’s Red Devil hot sauce
- 3 Tbsp unsalted stick butter
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced
Teriyaki Sauce
- 1/2 cup Kikkoman soy sauce (I use low-sodium)
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/8 cup Heinz ketchup
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/8 cup brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, shredded
directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Take any excess feathers off the wings. Coat the wings with vegetable oil spray. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake the wings on a cookie sheet for about 45 minutes until crispy and golden brown.
Meanwhile make the sauces.
Buffalo sauce: Melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan. When butter is melted, remove from heat. Add hot sauce and garlic and stir very well. Pour into a medium sized bowl and set aside.
Teriyaki sauce: Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the sauce just begins to thicken. Remove from heat, pour into another medium sized bowl, and set aside.
When the wings are cooked, remove from the oven. Put 1 dozen in the Buffalo sauce, 1 dozen in the teriyaki. Mix each batch very well until completely coated in yummy sauces.
Serve HOT with celery and blue cheese. Probably beer, too.
Pear-fennel salad
06 Jun 2010 11:42 EDT
ingredients
- 1/2 lb bacon
1 bulb fresh fennel
1 Asian pear (the round Japanese pear aka nashi, not the harder-to-find Chinese pear)
1 bunch fresh mesclun, torn into fork-size pieces (we used some volunteer lettuce that had sprung up in our garden)
2 oz goat cheese
citrus-balsamic vinaigrette ingredients
- 1 oz real old balsamic vinegarr
1 oz extra virgin olive oil
1 oz orange juice
dash of salt
generous dash of pepper
directions
Well beforehand, even a day, cook the bacon until quite crispy. Drain, pat off excess fat, and crumble.
Combine all the vinaigrette ingredients and shake together well. The recipe above gives the amount enough for a salad for two. To make more vinaigrette, just keep the ingredients in their 1:1:1 proportion.
Wash all vegetables thoroughly. Cut any long stems from the fennel and save for another dish. Trim the base and the outer leaves to remove any tough parts. Quarter the fennel and remove the innermost core. Finally, slice with the grain into matchstick-sized pieces. Peel and core the pear and slice approximately the same thickness as the fennel.
Combine the fennel, pears, and lettuce and dress with the vinaigrette, coating everything well. Top with crumbled goat cheese and bacon.
Light, satisfying, and surprising: the bacon doesn’t make it too heavy; the tangy cheese and crunchy, juicy pears and fennel give a great mouth feel and freshness; and the unusual combination of fruit and anise flavors against the bacon and cheese’s saltiness and umami is a real treat.
Venison Burgundy
25 Dec 2005 20:52 EDT
For Christmas this year, at the request of the kids. For venison, we used farm-raised elk we purchased at the Columbus North Market‘s “Poultry and Game“. For the wine, we used a California Pinot Noir, I believe from Camelot but I don’t remember for sure. This is a two-part recipe where you can eat both parts. Part one is a stew, and part two is the barbeque!
Ingredients, Part One
- One venison brisket
- Thyme (fresh or dried)
- Minced garlic (we go through so much garlic we buy it in large jars pre-chopped and packed in oil)
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Yellow onions, peeled and quartered
- Whole crimini mushrooms
- Carrots, roughly chopped
- Burgundy, Beaujolais, or Pinot Noir wine
Thoroughly wash and rinse the brisket. Remove the membrane and any excess fat (there probably won’t be too much excess fat on a fine beast like this; but it’s important to remove the membrane since that will impart a gamey taste which is not entirely pleasant.)
Rub the venison with thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper. Place meat in crockpot. Add onions, mushrooms, and carrots. Add 1/4 to 1/2 bottle of the wine.
Cook on low heat for a very long time, at least 6-8 hours. Add liquid only if necessary, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with appropriate accompaniments to your taste, and of course, the rest of that bottle of red wine.
Ingredients, Part Two:
- Leftover venison from Part One, cooled
- Good barbeque sauce (we use Sweet Baby Ray’s)
- Sandwich buns
Chop the cooled leftover venison. Add barbeque sauce to moisten, and heat thoroughly in a deep skillet or saucepan. Serve on toasted buns. This barbequed game is simply extraterrestrial. Seriously, the BBQ was even better than the original stew, in my opinion, although both were hits all around.
Roast Turkey and vegetable chili
24 Nov 2005 20:39 EDT
Thanksgiving-style chili made from roasted turkey and vegetables. The perfect snack food while watching the Lions lose!
Ingredients
- Roast turkey (not ground)
- Olive oil
- Roasted corn on the cob
- Roasted bell peppers
- Roasted onion
- Fresh celery
- Fresh red jalapeños
- Lots of garlic
- Ground cumin
- Mexene chili powder (half a jar!)
- Dried oregano
- Ground cayenne pepper
- Black pepper
- Kosher salt
- Fresh carrot
- Bay leaf
- 2 lg cans stewed tomatoes
- 2 sm cans Ro-tel tomatoes & chilis
- 1 can red or kidney beans
Roast the turkey in the oven like you would for Thanksgiving. This chili uses ½ of a turkey breast. Let cool, then chop roughly. Reserve the bones and make turkey broth for later by boiling the bones with some carrot, celery, and bay leaf.
Coat the vegetables for roasting (corn, peppers, and onion) in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast for 20 minutes at 400°. Chop the veggies and cut the kernels from the cobs.
In large stock pot, heat olive oil. Sautée garlic, celery, jalapeños along with the roasted peppers and onions. Add the chopped turkey. Now add a LOT of chili powder as well as cumin, cayenne, oregano. Sautée until the chili powder begins to cook. All at once add the stewed tomatoes, Ro-tel tomatoes, and turkey broth. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Add corn kernels. Salt and pepper to taste. After a few hours of cooking, add the beans. Simmer for at least 12 hours. Serve with croutons and American beer.
about mark beadles
I write the things you read here. Polymath renaissance redneck. I build software, stories, and young men. More...on the desk
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