garlic

Fajitas De Res (Beef Fajitas)

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Sour cream. Salsa Mexicana. Guacamole. Chopped cilantro.
These are some of the usual condiments I use when I make Fajitas at home (Sometimes I add shredded lettuce and grated cheese). Together, they form the perfect addition to griddled meat and tortillas, and all together make this the superbly delicious culinary experience which Tex-Mex cuisine has popularized in America and around the world. Nothing new here, just a proven recipe for success 🙂
But here it comes – what if you want to enjoy this without all the fuss and a whole bunch of little bowls crowding the table?
– How about turning all the individual condiments into one marvelous topping, which simplifies assembling and eating in front of the TV so much ? (Since I live alone with Bella, in front of the TV is where we take most of our meals). Well, I’ve tried to simplify by combining sour cream, salsa Mexicana, guacamole, chopped cilantro and seasoning with great success. Since the first time I prepared this, I used it for a variety of other grilled meats, vegetables and seafood’s. On more than one occasion I have even used the leftovers as toast-topping for breakfast the following morning.
For lack of a better name, I call this concoction “Fajita-Topping“. 🙂
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Bon Appetit ! Live is Good !
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Fajitas De Res (Beef Fajitas)

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Preparation :
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: heat tortillas, keep warm

: mix chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, avocado, chopped jalapenos, sour cream, chopped cilantro, kosher salt and lime juice

: “Fajita Topping”

: Slice flank steak, skirt steak or striploin into strips or slivers

: season beef with kosher salt and cayenne pepper, saute or griddle until browned but still rare

: add julienned peppers and julienned onions, saute another minute

: Fajitas De Res (Beef Fajitas)

: Fajitas De Res (Beef Fajitas)

: Fajitas De Res (Beef Fajitas)

: Fajitas De Res (Beef Fajitas)

: Fajitas De Res (Beef Fajitas)

: Fajitas De Res (Beef Fajitas)

: Fajitas De Res (Beef Fajitas)

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Sandwich Cubano

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Many years ago, in the seventies and early eighties, whenever I was spending time in Florida, partying about town nightly in Fort Lauderdale (home port for RVL) and Miami (home port for RCCL), the “Cubano” was a welcome midnight snack, when, many a night, its substantial mass and rustic deliciousness saved me and my friends from drowning in too many “Cuba Libres” and “Cervezas” 😦 🙂
The “Cubano” and its close cousin, the “Media Noche“, were omnipresent from morning until the wee-hours in small restaurants, food trucks and “Cantinas”, whereas nowadays it has been widely and sadly replaced by burgers and hot dogs and you can only find good “Cubanos” in local chains like “La Carreta” and a few remaining traditional Cuban restaurants and neighborhood dives.
Here now my tribute to this wonderful, simple, original sandwich.
“The Sandwich Cubano” – old-fashioned comfort food at its finest !
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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P.S.
If you don’t have a sandwich press, griddle or cast iron pan, wrap two bricks in alu-foil, preheat in oven at 500F, place sandwich between the bricks and bake in oven until golden and crisp, about 15 min.
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Sandwich Cubano

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Preparation :
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: pork butt (pork shoulder)

: remove skin from pork but, use for chicharones

: season pork with kosher salt, fresh-ground peppercorn and granulated garlic

: put in baking dish or cast iron pan, add some water, cook at 375F for 3 hours

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: fresh cuban bread

: cut into 2 pieces, cut open

: smear both sides with mustard, add a generous portion of sliced pork

: add sliced pickles

: add cooked ham

: add swiss cheese

: cover

: butter both sides lightly,place on sandwich press, griddle or cast iron pan

: cover with another heated cast iron pan

: cook until crisp on the outside and hot on the inside

: serve by itself, with fries, a small salad or (my preference) with a side of pineapple or mango

: Sandwich Cubano

: Sandwich Cubano

: Sandwich Cubano

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BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS # 54 – Cheese Polenta With Spicy Italian Sausage And Poached Egg

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When I got up early today, the plan was to do some cleaning and shopping and otherwise just hang and enjoy a quiet Easter Sunday, having a couple of sandwiches and some fruit.
I opened the fridge with the sole intention to get two apples as breakfast and wait for lunch to have a sandwich or something else which does not require more than five minutes in the kitchen. Well, such was the plan – until I saw the spicy Italian sausage and figured that it would help me to a more enjoyable start of the day. The sausage was quickly joined by some eggs and – what the heck – cheese polenta.
Looking at the pictures now and remembering this tasty dish, I must say it was a wise decision to over-rule the two apple-breakfast and go with this beauty instead.
(Later on, there was a great lunch and even greater dinner; – so much for good intentions and not spending much time in the kitchen)
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Click here for Perfect Poached Egg Recipe
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BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS # 54 – Cheese Polenta With Spicy Italian Sausage And Poached Egg

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Preparation :
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: bring water, garlic paste , kosher salt and cayenne pepper to a simmer (see recipe above)

: add cornmeal, simmer until corn meal is soft, about 40 minutes

: add grated cheese of your choice (I used Parmesano Reggiano), butter and heavy cream, check/adjust seasoning

: polenta

: meanwhile, poach eggs (see recipe above)

: score and saute spicy Italian Sausage

: when sausage is done, set aside, add scallions to the pan, saute one minute, remove to absorbent paper

: BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS # 54 – Cheese Polenta With Spicy Italian Sausage And Poached Egg

: BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS # 54 – Cheese Polenta With Spicy Italian Sausage And Poached Egg

: BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS # 54 – Cheese Polenta With Spicy Italian Sausage And Poached Egg

: BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS # 54 – Cheese Polenta With Spicy Italian Sausage And Poached Egg

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Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

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Glass noodles are the ideal canvas for pasta salad. They keep their texture even when kept as leftovers for a few days, which is perfect when you live alone and usually cook way too much for one meal, (as I do), even with a dog who will eat it’s fair share of whatever I cook 🙂
I like to prepare glass noodle salad with a dressing of kosher salt, cayenne pepper or sriracha, rice-vinegar, peanut oil, sesame oil, garlic paste, grated ginger, a tiny amount of sugar, cilantro and/or scallions. As for other ingredients, I sometimes add chicken, seafood, beef or duck, as well as any vegetables hanging-out in my fridge.
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

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Preparation :
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: season cooked, deveined shrimp with kosher salt, cayenne, garlic paste, lime juice, chopped cilantro and olive oil

: clean, blanch, shock, drain fresh green beans

: cook, shock, drain glass noodles

: add beans, finely shredded red cabbage, carrots and onions

: dress salad with kosher salt, cayenne, garlic paste, rice vinegar and olive oil

: to serve, top noodle salad with the marinated shrimp, sprinkle with chopped salted red radish and chopped cilantro

: Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

: Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

: Shrimp & Glass Noodle – Salad

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Gnocchi Alla Via Candia

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Gnocchi with corn, peas, ham, mushrooms, cream and Camoscio d’Oro.
(Camoscio d’Oro is an Italian cheese similar to camembert or brie, sometimes available in Italian markets around here ).
So, can you guess where I ate this dish the first time? Yep, at Via Candia 17, Torino, Italy.
I was about 20 years of age at the time and to this day, when I close my eyes, I can see the dish and the people I shared it with in front of me as if it was just a little while ago.
Happy memories, may they never fade…….. 🙂
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Bon Appetit ! Live is Good !
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Gnocchi Recipe
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Gnocchi Alla Via Candia

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Preparation :
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: saute mushrooms in olive oil until golden

: add whole butter, diced ham and diced onions, saute until onions are translucent

: add garlic paste, heavy cream, kosher salt and cayenne pepper, simmer until lightly thickened

: add green peas and kernel corn, check / adjust seasoning

: add freshly cooked gnocchi

: add diced Camoscio d’Oro (substitute with brie if not available), stir carefully until cheese has melted; to plate, sprinkle with thinly sliced scallions

: Gnocchi Alla Via Candia

: Gnocchi Alla Via Candia

: Gnocchi Alla Via Candia

: Gnocchi Alla Via Candia

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Best Snack – Ever !?

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Pork Rinds, Pork Skins, Pork Scratchings, Pork Crackling, Chicharrones, Scrunchions, Oreilles de Christ, Chicharrón, chicharrón con Gordo, Gratons, Khaep Mu, Tóp Mỡ, škvarky, Grieben, Griaba, Torresmos, Couratos, Knabbelspek, Flæskesvæ, etc, etc, etc.
Fried pork skin is eaten in most if not all areas around the world where pork is consumed. (Many other animal skins, ears and intestines are also used to make cracklings, but today I just want to talk about pork skins, most widely known as Chicharrones, but also by the many other names listed at the beginning of this post.
I sometimes buy them ready-made in bags and have found a few very good brands in the supermarkets around here, especially in the Latin-Markets. But nothing comes close to the freshly made homemade stuff, still warm and with a texture, flavor and aroma which you just don’t get from a bag. I happened to have some pork skin in the fridge which I removed from a pork butt I cooked yesterday, anticipating the chicharrones I wanted to prepare today. (I usually cook the butt skin-on).
However, pork skin is widely available from butchers and markets so you should have no problem sourcing it.
The process is very simple :
To fry the skins, use duck fat, pork fat or peanut oil. Simmer the skin in salted water until very tender, drain, let dry for a couple of hours. Cut into strips or cubes and fry at low temperature until very crisp. Remove to absorbent paper and season to your liking. Just plain kosher salt will do, but you can experiment with additional seasoning, such as cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, curry powder, za-atar, old bay seasoning, or my favorite, five spice powder, which I have used in today’s dish. I also like to sprinkle finely sliced scallions and chili flakes over the cracklings and use a dipping sauce of chili oil and hoi sin sauce.
WARNING !!!!
I recommend to cook the chicharrones outside in the open air; splattering of fat WILL occur !
In any case, no matter if you cook the chicharrones inside or outside, cover the fryer 3/4 with a lid while frying to minimize the fat going all over the place and possibly ignite on the hot stove.

To sum it up – making chicharrones at home is like making love :
– if you know what you are doing, the rewards can be wonderful 🙂
– if you don’t know what you’re doing, you might get burned 😦
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Chicharrones

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: Chicharrones

: Chicharrones

: Chicharrones

: Chicharrones

: Chicharrones

: Chicharrones

: Chicharrones

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Salmon In Beurre Noisette With Beans & Carrots In Honey-Mustard Dressing

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I pity the folks who’ll never taste a properly cooked salmon 😦
What a shame to miss-out on he texture of salmon (as well as most other fish and seafood) which has been cooked the old-fashioned way:
“Au Pointe” – to the point (of being done) , perfect doneness.
I have written about this a hundred times and I don’t get tired to repeat myself again – just because you are being served by a lousy cook who does not know the finer points of cooking should not mean that you get denied the best of the best. If, on the other hand, you have really had a chance to compare the texture and taste of a half-cooked piece of fish to that of a properly cooked piece and you still prefer the “seared only” version, than I’ll back off and say thank’s God most of us have a choice to eat what we like, and how we like it, no matter what 🙂

(I will also leave it to you to take the enormous risk of consuming certain under-cooked proteins in a less than perfectly controlled environment (from source to preparing and handling); after all, what can a few extra worms in your body do to you…….. 😦

But on to happier thoughts and this wonderful dish which features a great salad, properly cooked salmon and that magic taste & texture-enhancer – brown butter (Beurre Noisette).
While hot brown butter is not a typical addition to salad, in the case of this beans and carrot salad in honey-mustard dressing it provides the perfect final touch.
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Bon Appetit ! Life is good !
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P.S.
This salmon has been cooked slowly in whole butter, resulting in a soft skin, not recommended for human enjoyment. However, if you have a dog or cat living with you, they will most likely be ecstatic about this treat (Bella always is) 🙂
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Click here for : Honey-Mustard Dressing
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Pls read : The Hidden Dangers Of Uncooked Salmon
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Pls read : The Dangers Of Eating Raw Or Under-Cooked Fish And Mammals
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Salmon In Brown Butter With Bean & Carrots In Honey-Mustard Dressing

Salmon In Brown Butter With Beans & Carrots In Honey-Mustard Dressing

notice how juicy the inside of the fish, even minutes after plating

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Preparation :
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: trim, blanche, shock and drain fresh green beans, add shredded carrots and honey-mustard dressing

: green bean & carrot salad in honey-mustard dressing

: season salmon filets with cayenne pepper, granulated garlic, kosher salt and lemon juice

: saute salmon slowly in whole butter until about half-way cooked (at this point, butter will be lightly browned )

: add chopped parsley and more whole butter to the pan

: while the salmon finishes cooking, continuously ladle the parsley and brown butter over the fish

: keep going until salmon has reached 161F to 162F, let rest in a warm place until temperature has reached but NEVER EXCEEDED 165F

: after salmon has rested and reached safe temperature, place on top of salad, drizzle a few drops of lemonjuice over salmon and top with remaining brown butter and parsley, serve with fresh-squeezed lemon juice

: Salmon In Brown Butter With Beans & Carrots In Honey-Mustard Dressing

: notice how juicy the inside of the fish, even minutes after plating

: Bella patiently waiting for her salmon skin…. 🙂

: Madam looking scary…. 🙂

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Gulyásleves (Hungarian Goulash Soup) (Hungarische Gulaschsuppe)

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As I get older, I sadly realize that many of the dishes I took for granted and did not appreciate in my younger years only continue to exist in my memory and are forever gone in my daily life. Many dishes I remember from my years growing-up in Germany have vanished from my surroundings. Especially here in the USA, where food tradition is not something widely honored, especially when it comes to labor-intensive food. Too many cooks have never been introduced to the classics, and if they have, they have not been able nor interested to master them.
When was the last time you have seen a menu featuring “Potage Tortue Lady Curzon”, “Escargot Bourguignonne”, “Filet Café de Paris”, “Truite Au Bleu”, “Quenelles De Poisson Nantua”, “Consomme Royal”, etc, etc. Or Hungarian Goulash Soup, for that matter.
This is a dish which at one point in time was omnipresent in Germany and Austria, being featured in any type of restaurant. Usually it was served as an “in-between meal”, or during a break while hiking or skiing, or as a snack late mornings or late nights. Usually you could choose between regular or spicy. The spicy version usually differed from the regular one only by the addition of a few dashes of Tabasco, although some cooks took pride in preparing a spicy version from scratch by adding hot paprika powder to the sweet paprika powder which gives Hungarian Goulash Soup its signature reddish color. Like many other “original” dishes, ingredients such as vegetables, the type of meat as well as the seasoning can vary significantly, yet the final product should always be full of flavor, chuck-full of meat and vegetables and pleasantly red hued from a generous amount of good quality paprika.
If you want to make your Hungarian Goulash Soup into a more substantial meal, it is perfectly acceptable (and yummy) to add some hearty pasta to the soup.
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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All about Goulash
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Gulyásleves (Hungarian Goulash Soup) (Gulaschsuppe)

Gulyásleves (Hungarian Goulash Soup) (Ungarische Gulaschsuppe)

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Preparation :
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: cut beef brisket int 1/2 inch cubes

: saute beef in vegetable oil until browned, add finely diced onions, saute until onions are caramelized

: chop caraway seeds, oregano and cumin, add to meat, saute until fragrant

: meat and onions should be dark-brown but not burned

: add garlic paste, a tiny amount of flour, some tomato puree and sweet paprika (about 1 cup for 2 qt of soup)

: saute another minute, season with kosher salt and cayenne pepper or hot paprika powder

: add chicken or beef stock

: simmer until meat is very tender but not falling apart

: cut potatoes and peppers into dice

: add to soup, simmer slowly until patatoes are cooked, check / adjust seasoning

: Gulyásleves (Hungarian Goulash Soup) (Ungarische Gulaschsuppe)

: Gulyásleves (Hungarian Goulash Soup) (Ungarische Gulaschsuppe)

: Gulyásleves (Hungarian Goulash Soup) (Ungarische Gulaschsuppe)

: Gulyásleves (Hungarian Goulash Soup) (Ungarische Gulaschsuppe)

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Pork Medallions Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

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This is a typical meal as I prepare it at least twice a week lately – lot’s of veggies and fruits, some protein and as little starch and refined sugar as possible. It is all in the balance, so some days a small amount of sugar and starch versus some days with none of it……
It took me a bit to get used to it, but trying to live a healthier (and hopefully longer) life takes some effort 🙂
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Pork Medaillons Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

Pork Medallions Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

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Preparation :
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: whole pork tenderloin

: cut off head and tip, reserve for another dish, remove silver-skin, discard

: cut into medallions, flatten slightly, season with kosher salt, cayenne pepper and granulated garlick

: grill on both sides until 3/4 done

: while Medallions are cooking, simmer covered baby-rainbow carrots with kosher salt, butter, water, and honey

: slowly simmer until carrots are cooked and water has evaporated

: saute one minute in the honey-butter; to serve, add finely chopped parsley

: when medallions are 3/4 done, brush with teriyaki sauce, keep on cooking and brushing on both sides until meat is almost done, remove from grill, (carry-over heat will take it to 165) let meat rest at least 5 minutes before serving

: serve medallions with the carrots, Thai chili sauce and grilled lemon wedges

: Pork Medallions Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

: Pork Medallions Teriyaki With Rainbow-Carrots In Honeybutter

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Spinach, Potato & Garlic Cream Soup

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Here now is a top-candidate for easiest to prepare comfort food of the month 🙂
– Actual prep time – less than 5 minutes.
– Total time from start to finish – 25 minutes max.
– Gratification – immense 🙂
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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