Braised Leeks

Leeks are a delicious member of the Allium family - right along with onions and garlic. I absolutely LOVE leeks. Here is a simple and tasty recipe to get leeks added as a side dish for dinner. It's a slow cooking method, but the prep time is minimal.

Braised Leeks

Whole Leeks
Stock (you can use any kind, I typically use chicken, but vegetable stock would be fine as well)
Olive Oil (1-4 T, depending on how many leeks you have and how big your pan is - I used one above for 3 med size leeks)
Salt and Pepper

35-45 minutes

1.  Remove the dark green tops from the the whole leeks (save if you are going to be making stock soon). Leaving the end on, slice in quarters - still leaving whole - so that you can wash the leeks thoroughly. Put the leaks under running water - being sure to open up the leaves so that you can get the dirt out - they can be really dirty sometimes!

2. Place the leeks in a saucepan and pour in the stock to reach about halfway up the leeks. Add the oil and season with salt and pepper.

3. Bring to a boil, cover (leaving the cover slightly ajar) and braise for 30-40 minutes (until tender). Serve hot.

You can cook almost any vegetable in this way and they always turn out tender and delicious.

Happy Cooking.

xo. cheers. namaste.

MK

MK's Homemade Chili

If there's one thing I love about the cold months and food -  it's chili - lots and lots of really good homemade chili. I've finally developed - taken from many spaces and places - a hearty, spicy recipe of my own.

MK's Homemade Chili

8-10 cloves of garlic - minced

1 med size onion (2 cups) - chopped

1/2 tsp salt

2 T neutral oil - such as grapeseed

2 lbs of ground beef (I use the leanest I can get - 93% lean, 7% fat typically)

2-3 T chili powder - I just got a delicious 'medium hot' chili powder from Penzeys Spices in the Strip District of Pittsburgh - just the right amount of heat!

1 tsp cumin

28 oz of diced tomatoes (I usually buy the kind with green chili's in it)

1 T red wine vinegar

2 cans of beans (you can use all kidney beans, or a combo of kidney, white or black beans)

salt/pepper to taste

optional, if you have it:

mushrooms - sauteed

parsley

shredded cheese

sour cream

Preparation and Cook time: 1 - 3 hours

- Heat the neutral oil in a dutch oven or large soup pot. Once the oil is heated, add the chopped onions, minced garlic and 1/2 teaspoon salt - saute until soft, about 8 minutes, stirring often to prevent browning.

- Add the ground meat and fry until browned, stirring often.

- Add the chili powder and cumin to the browned meat and stir, mixing the flavors for about two minutes.

- Add the diced tomatoes, red wine vinegar, and two cups of beef stock (or water) and bring to a boil.

- Add the kidney beans and salt/pepper to taste. Reduce heat and simmer for another 30 minutes to 2 hours. The longer the chili simmers, the more the flavors marry and the more delicious the chili becomes. 

- While the chili simmers you can add sauteed mushrooms if you have them. You can also add about a 1/4 cup of parsley about 5 minutes before you finish cooking

- Serve hot and garnish with parsley - add shredded cheese and sour cream for additional texture flavors.

Yummmmm!

xo, cheers, namaste,

MK

Christmas Goose and Goose Stock

So, I know this is a little delayed, but here's my little Christmas story this year. Right before the holidays, my mom decided that she was going to take on 'the project of pictures' - you know, the one that lives in the realm before digital cameras - where you just have boxes and boxes of pictures that never made into albums - well, this was found:

That's my brother (dork!), my mother, and my Aunt Gloria holding my cousin Christopher (you can only see one foot and hand) - sitting around the dinner table about 18 years ago on Christmas - with a goose. This great find naturally made me realize what we were going to have for Christmas this year - a goose - and thus, me making a goose for Christmas was born. Grandma bought me an apron for the occasion:

I searched around for some recipes, and found a fairly easy one and, as per usual, cross referenced it with my all time favorite book - my kitchen bible - Mark Bittmans "How to Cook Everything". Here was the resulting recipe:

Christmas Goose

1 10lb goose

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp ground sage

About 3 hours.

- Preheat oven to 350. 

- Remove giblets and neck from goose. Rince goose with cold running water, drain well. Place goose breast side up, lift wings toward neck and fold them under the back of the goose. Tie the legs together with string

- Place goose, breast side down, on a rack in a large roasting pan. Prick the goose in several places to drain fat during roasting using a skewer or a sharp fork. Rub goose with salt, pepper and ground sage.

- Put the roasting pan in the oven and roast for 20 minutes. Prick the goose skin again and roast for another 20 minutes - the goose should be beginning to brown. Turn the goose breast side up, and baste with the juices from the pan (the goose will release about a quart of fat and juices while cooking - which you can keep for frying other foods if you'd like). Roast the goose for another hour - you should prick the skin and baste 2 or 3 more times.

- If the goose isn't already too browned, raise the temperature to 400 and continue to roast for another 30 minutes. At this point the bird will be done if a meat thermometer reads 165. If the bird is too brown, and needs to continue cooking, you can cover the goose loosely with foil. Another indicator that the bird is done is if the juices run clear, and the leg bone wiggles a little in the socket. 

- When done, let the goose rest for about 20 minutes before carving.

Thank you Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook and Mark Bittman.

Carving the bird was not easy, dad really struggled - but it was worth it. A goose has nothing but all delicious dark meat. Even though the goose releases quite a lot of fat, the meat itself is very lean. We got our goose at Wholey's in the Strip District. Doesn't serve many, 6-8 people, but it was a nice addition to the ham, stuffed cabbage and other great dishes that were served for the holiday - including my grandmothers famous potato salad - recipe I must get...

So anyway, here we are:

Mother and brother (still a dork) replicating a photo from 18 years ago...

Since we had a leftover goose carcass, I decided to freeze it and make a stock out of it, made it just as I would a chicken stock:

Goose Stock

1 goose carcass

1 onion - cut in half, leaving skin on

1-2 carrots - cut in 2-3 in pieces

1-2 celery stalks - cut in 2-3 in pieces

1 bulb of garlic 

few springs of parsley

1-2 bay leaves

8 black peppercorns

1/2 tsp salt

water to cover

cheesecloth

If you don't have all the veggies to make the stock, just use what you have!

2.5-3 hours

- In a large stock pot - place goose carcass in large stock pot with all ingredients, cover with cold water

- Bring to a boil. Skim off any fat from the top (I really didn't get any), and then lower heat to simmer, partially covering pot. 

- Simmer for as long as you can, at least an hour, I left mine simmering for about 2.5 hours.

- Place a cheesecloth over a colander and strain the stock into a large bowl  - pressing on the vegetables to get any juices that have accumulated within them for extra flavoring

- Cool. If it's cold enough outside, you can place the bowl, partially covered outside to cool quickly, or if you have room in your freezer to cool uncovered. I put mine in the refrigerator overnight partially covered. Once it is cool, any fat will have solidified at the top. Use a spoon and/or paper towel to scrape the fat from the liquid.

- If you have the space and the containers, you can store the stock in the fridge for no more than a week, or the freezer for up to 6 months. Make sure to bring the stock to a boil before using it again. You can also reduce the stock by boiling it down, and either putting it in smaller containers, or if you have an ice cube tray you can boil it down to the size of an ice cube tray and freeze it that way, then place the frozen stock cubes in a plastic freezer bag to store. Simply add about a cup of water to the cube and bring to a boil when you want to use it. 

So that's it. That's my Christmas story this year - goose stock and all. 

Merry Christmas (a little late!).

xo, cheers, namaste,

MK

brown sugar baby

It's been quite some time since my last post - and I really need some rest and relaxation tonight, so I thought it would be a good time to invite this blog back into my life.

Last night my family had birthday dinner for me, well really, I had birthday dinner for my family - because I'll take any excuse to cook. I made an awesome brown sugar salmon - a recipe that I got from my friend Meg's mom, Nancy.

Brown Sugar, Soy and Ginger Salmon

1.5 lbs fresh, boneless and skinless salmon
2 T soy sauce
1 T rice wine vinegar
2 tsp fresh minced ginger
2 T brown sugar
1 tsp sesame oil

Cut salmon into even slices
Combine all other ingredients into a bowl and whisk together
Marinate salmon in fridge for at least 30 minutes
Heat broiler
Place on a baking pan and broil fish for 3-7 minutes - depending on the thickness of the fish and how close to the heat each piece is - may have to move the pieces around a bit to get each piece evenly cooked - the salmon should caramelize on top and should flake easily with a fork when done.

I got my salmon from Wholey's in the Strip and this recipe was just delicious. Paired it with roasted brussels sprouts and rice. Yum.

xo. cheers. namaste,

MK

weekend events (and grilled veggie marinade)

Last weekend was another busy weekend, and as per usual, too short. After having been away for two weekends in a row (Lancaster and then Deep Creek), I was excited to stick around town, clean my apartment (yes, I was excited to do this - and I'm still not done), get my haircut and see some old friends. Friday I stayed in, but Saturday involved a 'lil girls night with some big burgers. I brought a side of veggies to grille after a successful trip to the farmers market where I also got some herbs for the kitchen windowsill - a little bit of a makeshift potting situation - but it works:

Basil, Parsley and Lemon Thyme - yum.

I picked up red, yellow and green peppers, mushrooms, zucchini and eggplant and did a really simple and easy marinade that added great flavors to the veggies:

Grilled Veggie Marinade:

2/3 c olive oil
1/3 c balsamic vinegar
1 T chopped fresh basil
1 t minced garlic
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper

I chopped up my veggies in fairly large pieces and marinated them in fridge for about 4 hours in a plastic ziplock bag - then shish kebabed them up and threw them on the grill for abut 15 minutes. So fresh and tasty:

Bianca was our host and she cooked us up some delicious burgers and put together a creative and super fun spread of toppings to choose from:

She did an amazing job with all the selections - it was such a fun thing to do during our little reunion.

Looks pretty damn good! It was such a fun night and great to catch up with some old friends:

Sunday involved an afternoon Pirates game which was very fun. Turned out to be the longest game in PNC Park history - 16 innings! They lost - but we made the most of it:

The weekend was full of good times and good eats, so as I like to say: success!

xo. cheers. namaste,

MK

thursday night stir-fry

Just when I thought I had nothing to eat in my house, I realized I had just the right ingredients laying around for a delicious and easy stir-fry.

In my freezer I had some pre-cooked chicken that I just needed to saute (yea, I do the Tyson pre cooked (grilled) thing, I'm a busy girl!). In my fridge I had some carrots and celery. And in the 'pantry' I of course had some garlic and onion. Real simple:

Thursday Night Stir-Fry:

rice

salt
chicken (as much as you want) I used about 1/3 cup of chicken pieces

2 T neutral oil (such as grapeseed)
1 T minced garlic
1/4 cup chopped onion
4 smallish carrots, julienne
2 celery stalks, julienne
1/4 cup chicken stock or water
2 T soy sauce (I use a low sodium)
1 t dark oil (such as a toasted sesame oil)
rice

- Cook the rice as you normally would (I do my rice the French way by boiling a large pot of water then adding salt and the rice and bring back to a boil for about 12 minutes, then drain)
- Heat the pan with some neutral oil (I always keep grapeseed oil in the house) over med-high heat
- Saute the chicken - which gets the pan nice and hot (you want a really hot pan to saute your veggies later) - and put the cooked chicken off to the side
- Add some more oil - let it heat up and throw the garlic and onion in for about 15 seconds
- Add the carrots and celery and chicken stock or water, turn the heat to high, and cook, stirring frequently, for about 8 minutes or until the veggies are tender - you may need to add additional stock or water if it becomes dry (p.s. carrots cooked in chicken stock are just so damn good - I love to braise carrots in chicken stock)
- Add the soy sauce and dark oil and throw the chicken back in, saute everything together for 30-45 seconds
- Serve over the rice

This recipe can be adapted in SO many ways - and is so super easy and delicious - a great way to use up the vegetables you have left from the week.

Yum. Perfect Thursday night dinner - and leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

xo. cheers. namaste,

MK

Deep Creek and Breakfast Casserole

Well, I'm back from another weekend away! Had a blast with some friends in McHenry, Maryland at Deep Creek Lake. It was my first time there, and it was absolutely beautiful - here is the view from my friend Corey's house where we stayed:

Amazing. 

Over the weekend everyone had a turn to make a meal - Meg and I were responsible for Saturday morning breakfast. Success! We made a super easy and delicious egg and sausage casserole. The recipe came from Megs fantastic cook of a mother, Nancy, and is called "Dad's Xmas Morning Egg Casserole." Super easy to make, and very convenient because you can put most of it together the night before:

Dad's Xmas Morning Egg Casserole:

1 lb sausage 

1/2 lb shredded sharp cheese

1/2 t dry mustard

1/2 t paprika

1 t salt

1 C sour cream

1 dozen eggs

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees

Coat a 2-3 qt dish with Pam or substitute and put 1/2 of the cheese on bottom of dish

Cook and drain sausage

Mix spices with sour cream

Add cooked sausage to sour cream mixture

Spread sour cream sausage mixture over cheese 

(above part can be done the night before)

Beat eggs and pour over sausage mixture

Place in oven for 30-40 minutes (best way to check if it is done is to give the pan a shake to make sure the eggs are fully cooked)

We weren't the only ones who did good, the weekend involved lots of other fantastic eats and drinks:

In addition to eating, we also did lots of boating:

Lots of hanging out and games:

And of course, lots of dancing:

Good times!

cheers. xo.

MK