Cast Iron Frittata

So I've made Frittata and posted on here about it before, however that was always done with just a skillet/saucepan. Now I used a cast iron skillet I've had around and I think it improved the flavor at least 10 fold.

Ingredients:
9 Eggs
1 Green Bell Pepper, finely diced
1 Poblano Pepper, finely diced
1 Yellow Onion, finely diced
1/3 stick Butter
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Paprika
Garlic Salt
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Gruyere Cheese
Monterey & Colby Jack Cheese

Alright, so first things first. Get your cast iron skillet ready. This took me quite awhile since I had not used it in a long time and it may have gotten a little rusty. So to clean this don't use soap. It causes headaches. I used Olive Oil and a paper towel to wipe it down until it was fixed. This takes awhile.

Once you have that done, cut up a stick of Butter to where 1/3 of it is in the cast iron skillet, along with some Olive Oil. At this point empty out your oven and turn it to 400 BAKE.

Now gather the rest of your ingredients.

First, dice your Onion up very finely. You can leave it chunky if you prefer that, but I like it finely diced so that's just what I did!

Second, dice up your Green Bell Pepper. I also diced up my Poblano Pepper after this but no picture since it looks pretty much the same just darker.

Turn on the burner your cast iron skillet is on, I set it at MEDIUM. Once it melts most of the Butter into the Olive Oil, dump your diced Onions in and move them around.

At this point I cracked the eggs into a mixing bowl and mixed them up together with a dash of Ground Black Pepper and Sea Salt.

Your Onions should be caramelized quite nicely by now.

Add in your diced Peppers.

Mix together and add a light dusting of Garlic Salt and Paprika.

Once the Peppers start to soften, turn off your burner. Add the Egg mixture to the skillet. Top it with however much cheese you want on top. I went crazy with it.

Into the oven it goes. Make sure to use an oven mitt or something similar since the cast iron skillet will burn you.

It takes about 10-20 minutes to cook properly. I like my eggs a little drier when I make Frittata so I left it in the oven for about 18 minutes. You can tell it is done by the edges of the Frittata mixture pulling away from the sides of the skillet.

Due to my large amount of cheese used, there was a large cheese bubble on top of my Frittata! Once it began to cool it went away, but still interesting to see.

I let it cool for about 5 minutes and then cut into pieces and served. Make sure to use a sharp object like a knife to edge around the Frittata, otherwise it might stick to the outside when you are trying to remove it for consumption. Enjoy.

Chef's Original: Mixed up Breakfast

As some of you may know, I like to have my lunch and or breakfast for work cooked up the day before. This is generally done because I hate actually cooking right after I wake up since I know I'll probably burn and or cut myself. So I do it the night before. Tomorrow I needed a breakfast and this is the delicious result.

Ingredients:
1 lb White Button Mushrooms
7 XL Eggs
2 Green Bell Peppers
3 Anaheim Peppers
1 cup diced Scallions
Couscous (2 cups Couscous, 3 cups Water)
1.5 cup Pearl Barley
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
1/4 stick Butter
Lime Juice
Teriyaki Sauce
Soy Sauce
Olive Oil
Archer Farms Asian-Inspired Sweet Chile "wing sauce"
Italian Herb Mix
Shredded Asiago Cheese
Shredded Gruyere Cheese

Alright, I did do this kind of in stages. I began with starting my Couscous in my Rice Cooker. If you do not have one of these, I highly suggest picking one up! Once I got the Couscous going, I put the Pearl Barley in a small sauce pot with 4 cups of Water. I turned the heat to MEDIUM. I also diced up the Peppers and Mushrooms.

In a large saucepan I put in about 2/3 cup of Archer Farms Asian-Inspired Sweet Chile "wing sauce". To this I added 2 decent squeezes of the Lime Juice bottle, a good 1/4 cup or so worth of the Soy and Teriyaki Sauces. Turn the heat to MEDIUM.

Once this begins to boil, I threw in the diced Mushrooms. I moved them around to get some of the mixture on each one.

Now about 3 minutes later, I added in a dusting of Black Pepper and Sea Salt. Mix some more.

After about 2 more minutes, the Mushrooms should be done. Check by taste testing and make sure it's cooled when tasting. When done, place in a mixing bowl and put to the side.

I cleaned out the large saucepan and put it back on the stovetop where I left the burner at MEDIUM. It will sizzle with the water on the bottom. I threw in the diced Peppers and a good dollop of Olive Oil. Mix.

I then added some Sea Salt and Ground Black Pepper to the mix. I want to say a good dusting, maybe a dash less. Mix.

Once that's done, which should be about 3 minutes total, put in a mixing bowl.

Eggs time. I whisked the 7 Eggs together first. Using the same saucepan, cleaned out again, I put in the Butter. Once that was mostly melted, I added in the whisked Eggs.

Right away I added in the Scallions. I put in about a 1/4 cup's worth. I also added a good amount of both Cheeses listed above.

You should know how to cook eggs, so follow that plan. Look, they're done!

Now just plate how you want. I plated them differently. One way was with the Mushrooms and served on a Tortilla with a dash of Italian Herb Mix. The second way was on the Couscous.

Beef Short Ribs in Sauce

A couple months ago I went out to Winslow's Wine Cafe here in Fort Worth, TX. If you are local and have not gone, you should seriously make a point of it to go there. It is not just wine, but has an amazing menu of items that I cannot get enough of. That place is also the inspiration for this recipe as I had a Buffalo Short Ribs dish off of their menu. It was delicious!

Ingredients:

For the Sauce:
2 White Onions, diced
2.5 cups Cabernet Sauvignon
0.25 cup Lime Juice
1 cup Vegetable Broth
Ancho Chili Powder
1 small can Tomato Sauce

For the Short Ribs:
1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
0.5 cup Vegetable Broth
Fennel Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Ancho Chili Powder
Aleppo Chili Powder
Garlic Salt
Ground Black Pepper
0.5 cup Olive Oil

Alright, we're going to split this recipe up between making the sauce and cooking the short ribs themselves so as to avoid confusion.

The Sauce

I began this by dicing up my 2 White Onions by hand.

I then put a large saucepan on the stovetop and turned the heat to medium. In went the Cabernet Sauvignon and Lime Juice. I stirred that together and added in the Vegetable Broth.

After that, I added in the small can of Tomato Sauce I had.

I stirred that together and once it began to boil, I added in the diced White Onions.

Mix together so all of the Onions get covered in the mixture.

Leave the heat on medium. I chose to cover it, however I don't think you really need to do that. About 10 minutes later, this is what it looks like:

Looks tasty to me. I know you're wondering where the Ancho Chili Powder is...well I added it about 15 minutes into it cooking. I did this so it did not overpower the other flavors and instead complemented them.

Now I let it cook for about 30 minutes. Might have been closer to 45, so just do what feels right. I then turned the heat off and let it cool for 5 minutes. I spooned out the onions with a slotted spoon and put them in a blender to puree the Onions. I then poured the puree back into the pan and let it cook on medium low for 10 minutes. Then it's done. Feel free to taste!

Beef Short Ribs

Alright, the focal point of our meal. I have never cooked Short Ribs before, so I was somewhat hesitant about cooking these. The only real thing I had to go on was my experience with Baby Back Ribs and looking at a recipe online. I sort of followed it but I would say 90% of this recipe is all me.

I began by mixing my spice mix together. I have no perfect amounts listed as I just poured them out of their containers or bags. Everything was about even with a little more emphasis on Garlic Salt and Fennel Powder. I knew the sauce would almost overpower this mix, so I included that Ancho Chili Powder here as well. I used about a 1/2 cup of spice mix all together.

After mixing it together in a mixing bowl, I poured it into a saucepan that already had a 1/2 cup of Olive Oil. I used a spoon I had to mix the oil and spices together.

I then put the Short Ribs in meat side down and bone side up. I did this because I wanted that side to get a good cooking to start off with. I also added in 0.5 cups of Cabernet Sauvignon. Save the rest for later on.

About 10 minutes later I flipped them over to bone side down.

I let them cook this way for about 15 minutes.

More flipping them over! See how the thin layer of meat/fat/connective tissue there started to pull away, that is what I was going for.

Now I let them cook for awhile, noticing that the mixture was drying up...

So I added the rest of the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Alright, every about 5 minutes I turned them onto their sides to get a good even cook all over.

After doing that twice, I turned to the sauce. The sauce should be pureed and back in the pan cooking by now. I put the Short Ribs in there and coated with sauce.

I then flipped them and let them cook for 3 minutes.

Turn off the heat and pluck those delicious Short Ribs out and onto a plate to serve. I added a good serving of the sauce with because I think it is the way to serve them. Also, chopped up a Scallion for garnishing purposes. Enjoy.