Main Dishes

Sweet Potato Hash

May 6, 2015

sweetpotatohash

Over the years, I had collected at least 6 Sweet Potato Hash recipes, but had never tried it.  Perhaps my hesitation is my husband, he would not be a fan. Bill does not like anything called hash, casserole, or my favorite “midwest-hotdish”.  I decide to take advantage of him being out of town and attempt my first batch. I love sweet potatoes, growing up, they were only served as a Thanksgiving treat, they always came in a can, had more butter, brown sugar and marshmallows than potatoes. My Thanksgiving tradition has evolved over the years, is now baked, has a lot less butter and the marshmallows have been replaced with pecans and I no longer reserve the sweet, savory flavor for Thanksgiving, and will indulge at least once or twice a week.  I juice them, bake them, boil them, fry them, enjoy them all!

Since this was a last minute decision to make, I had to blend several recipes together, based on ingredients on hand and time available. I started with 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.  I have no knife skills, so this process took longer than I expected. I really need to google better ways to chop and dice!  I thought the Hot Pork Sausage would compliment the sweet from the potatoes and add a much needed kick. I wish I had green pepper, the red bell was ended up being too sweet and certainly did nothing for the “look” of the dish. Onions, garlic and cumin rounded out the ingredients.

Rating; easy, minimal ingredients, great for weeknight dinner.  I was slightly disappointed, wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be.  I will try it again, with green peppers and a little more cumin. I did love that the leftovers make a great side for breakfast the next day!

SweetpotatoHashPrep

Sweet Potato Hash

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

1 medium onion – diced

1 red or green pepper – diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 pkg ground hot sausage (pork or chicken)

1 tsp cumin (additional if needed)

Add sweet potatoes to a medium pot of boiling water.  Cook until tender (5 minutes).  Do not overcook. Drain and set aside.

In a skillet,  cook sausage until done (10 min).  Remove with a slotted spoon.  In same pan, with the sausage drippings, saute garlic until almost brown.  Add onion and peppers an cook until soft.  Add the sweet potatoes and sausage to the pan and  continue cooking another 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

 

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Sweet Potato Hash
Author: 
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: American
 
Ingredients
  • 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes.
  • 1 medium onion - diced
  • 1 red or green pepper - diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 pkg ground hot sausage (pork or chicken)
  • 1 tsp cumin (additional if needed)
Instructions
  1. Add sweet potatoes to a medium pot of boiling water. Cook until tender (5 minutes). Do not overcook. Drain and set aside.
  2. In a skillet, cook sausage until done (10 min). Remove with a slotted spoon. In same pan, with the sausage drippings, saute garlic until almost brown. Add onion and peppers an cook until soft. Add the sweet potatoes and sausage to the pan and continue cooking another 5 minutes.

Drinks

Making Margaritas

May 4, 2015

MargritaMix+Salt!!!I am not much of a cocktail drinker, but was making tacos for Cinco de Mayo and margaritas are a much better pairing.

I found a great recipe, which I had ripped out of a magazine. Wish I remembered where I took it from, so I could give credit. What I loved about this recipe was that it only had 4 ingredients. Well, actually, 7 if you include the salt I decided to make with it.

The mixing of the margaritas was the easy part, the salt proved the most complicated step. Halfway through the process, I swore I would never attempt again. Recipe sounded easy enough, zest 2 oranges and dry the skins in the microwave. Unlike me, my husband, Bill is a cocktail nerd, he has a zester, I had to google to make sure I was using the right thing. The zest should take 90 seconds to dry, turning every 30 seconds. After 2 1/2 min, I thought it was done (mistake one, not done). I loaded the orange zest, kosher salt and smoked paprika into my $2.99 IKEA spice mill. I bought it the day before, specifically for this project, and it doesn’t work (mistake two, no cheap gadgets). At this point, I am convinced without the salt, dinner will be ruined or at least the margaritas. I am committed to completing the task. I trek off to Kohl’s, $30 later and a second spice mill, I try to justify the purchase with the $10 bounce back coupon good next week (which I undoubtedly will forget to use).

Back home and quickly running out of time, my son starts the tedious process of grinding.  He quickly gives up and enlists his 71 year-old grandmother to finish the task. After several minutes, and barely anything coming out, I need to rethink this. I decide the zest must not be dry enough. I take it out of the mill throw it back on napkin and another 30 seconds in the microwave. Still not dry enough. Additional 30 seconds (mistake three, do not overcook), burnt half the zest. Now, I am picking out chunks of burned zest, but not willing to admit defeat. Finally, the zest is dry enough when it practically breaks into pieces in my hands. I throw the chunks back into the mill and success! I run it quickly through coarse and reload 2 more times, adjusting the setting each time to get a fine grain.

Finally, time for the margaritas. I used Patron Silver, it was either that or Jose Cuervo Gold. I googled, since I don’t know the difference, in this case Silver is better than Gold. Gold is aged and boasts more complex flavors that take away from the cocktail. I stirred in tequila, orange liqueur, fresh lime juice (the limes were small, so I ran them through my juicer to maximize the liquid) and super fine sugar. I waited to stir in ice until right before serving.

Once guests arrived, I added the Smoky Orange Salt to the rim to the glass, and poured a perfect margarita.

Rating: Overall, salt was time consuming, but the additional flavor of the salt made the drink more interesting and worth the effort. Now that I figured out the drying process and own the right equipment, pretty sure it will be easy. I will absolutely be doing this again, and looking forward trying additional combinations.

Smoky Orange Salt

Zest from 2 oranges

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika

Dry orange zest in microwave, turning every 30 seconds until crisp. (Up to 3 min).

Add dried orange zest, salt and smoked paprika into spice mill, grind to desired  texture.  Dip wet rim of margarita glass into salt to coat. Add margarita.

Margarita

12 ounces Silver Tequilla

6 ounces of fresh lime juice

3 ounces orange liqueur

3 tablespoons ultra fine sugar

Mix 1st three ingredients and slowly stir in sugar until dissolved. Add ice immediately before serving.

Serves 6.

LiqourMix

Main Dishes

Cinco De Mayo – Steak Tacos

May 3, 2015

Steak Tacos

Cinco De Mayo was coming up and I wanted to make steak tacos. I typically make tacos during the week, it is quick and easy and my family loves them. I always do the same thing, ground turkey, a packet of taco seasoning mix, iceberg lettuce, diced tomatoes, onions, black olives and cheddar cheese. Since it was the weekend and I was feeling overly ambitious, I decide on something a little “fancier”. I really wanted to try steak tacos with a chimichurri sauce. Most recipes I saw called for skirt steak or flank steak. I am not a huge fan of either, I opted for thin slice New York Strip Loin. It ended up being an expensive cut, in hindsight I should have picked the flank steak at a third of the price.

I cooked the steak on the grill, not that I really know how to use the grill. Bill, my husband, usually does this step, but he just got home from a golfing trip and was not quite functioning to his standards. He, thankfully, did manage to light the grill for me. I threw the steaks on just as guests were arriving, I was putting finishing touches on margaritas, and distracted (no surprise), I ended up with medium well to well done, but not burnt, which was perfect for me. The rest of my family likes medium rare, but were still satisfied with the steak and were really appreciative of the work and effort I put into the meal.

I used both flour tortillas and white corn tortillas, topped with a choice of pico de gallo, chimichurri sauce or guacamole and crumbled queso cheese.

Rating; awesome, will make again. If I prep the steak in the morning, this could be a weeknight recipe, but I loved the sauce pairings so much (see Cinco de Mayo appetizers post), I think this would fall in weekend entertaining.

Steakseasoned1

 

Chimichurri Sauce (see Cinco de Mayo Taco Bar)

 

 

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Steak Marinade
Author: 
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Mexican
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 Steaks
 
Ingredients
  • Juice from 2 oranges
  • Juice from 2 limes
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • Couple slices of onion
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Place steaks and marinade in a gallon ziploc bag. Marinate for 2 hours.

SteakStrips-1

Appetizers

Cinco de Mayo – Taco Bar

May 3, 2015

Chips+Dips

Bill gets back in town today. While he has been at a golf tournament for 4 nights, I decide to plan an early Cinco de Mayo celebration for when he gets home. Sometimes, I get these ideas and they snowball out of control (see margarita post and steak chimichurri).

I got up at 6:30am Sunday, I need coffee, I need to clean the house and I need to plan the dinner.  The night before, I invited last minute guests, which means no turning back.  I knew the main course was going to be Steak Tacos with Chimichurri Sauce. I decided to add pico de gallo, guacamole and homemade tortilla chips and create a taco bar.

I started the pico at 9:30am. Took only about 30 minutes. Would be much quicker if didn’t take me forever to chop everything, plus it didn’t help that the onions kept burning my eyes…need to google how to prevent this.

I love going to an authentic Mexican restaurant, where the chips are extra thick, extra salty and perfectly crisp. I envisioned this, when I decided to make my tortilla chips. I started with white corn tortillas, I tried to brush them with oil, but found it was easier if I just poured canola oil and add salt on a plate and dredged them through it, probably not the most healthy way but it was quicker and coated more evenly. After about 16 shells, I thought this was a bad idea. I’m starting to do math in my head, 16 shells, cut into 6 chips=96 total chips/8 people=12 chips per person. I am going to need more. Easily distracted (you will start seeing a theme across blogs shortly), I burn the first two pans. Now, I am down to about 8 chips per person. Not willing to give up or burn another pan, I place one cookie sheet with no more than 10-12 chips in the oven and watch until done, then repeat process 5 more times. I decide at this point, my time would be better spent on the balance of the meal as this was not a recipe for multitasking. Fortunately, I had a backup store bought bag in the pantry! Honestly the time and cost to make your own chips, isn’t at all worth it. In the future, I will that up to the experts.

I moved on to chimichurri sauce. Never made it before. Super easy and very good. It was a pretty spicy, but not too spicy that I couldn’t handle it. A must make again. I loved that everything was made in the food processor, which made for a quick clean up.

Last was the guacamole. I waited until one hour before the party started to mix it together. I didn’t want the avocado to start to brown. The key to making fresh guacamole is having ripe avocados. They should be soft to the touch, easy to peel and pit and easy to mash. The remaining ingredients should be diced to small chunks and stirred in. Feel free to adjust the quantities to your taste levels, there is no right or wrong!

photo

 

Chimichurri Sauce

1 cup cilantro – big stems removed

1 cup of parsley – big stems removed

4 cloves garlic

3 green onions, thinly chopped

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 jalapeno – seeded and pith removed

Juice from 1/2-1 lime

1/2 cup or so of olive oil

Salt and pepper

Pulse 1st 6 ingredients in a food processor until blended. Add 1/2 cup of olive oil and lime juice. Puls again until smooth. Refrigerate in airtight container until serving. Serves 6-8.

Guacamole

3 avocado, ripe, peeled pits removed and mashed

2 Roma tomatoes -diced small (optional)

1 medium red onion- diced small

1 jalapeno – minced seeded and pith removed

Juice from 2 limes

Handful of finely chopped cilantro

Mash avocado with lime juice. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover in airtight container, refrigerate at least 1 hour prior to serving.  Serves 6.

Homemade Tortilla Chips

16 white corn tortillas

Canola oil

Salt

Brush both sides of Tortilla with canola oil and salt. Slice into 6 chips. Place on cookie sheet, for crispier chips, do not over crowd. Place in a preheated oven 350 degrees. Watch closely, remove when starting to brown.

 

Save Print
Pico de Gallo
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Mexican
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6-8
 
Ingredients
  • 6 Roma tomatoes - diced
  • 1 onion - diced
  • 1 jalapeno - minced seeded, pith removed (optional)
  • 1 glove garlic - minced
  • Juice from 2-3 limes
  • Handful of chopped cilantro
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients together. Refrigerate in an airtight container until ready to serve.