Clams in Broth

Alright, so I am not really known for my taste for seafood. Today I decided to twist that up and cook up some Clams. I've done this once before and I love how easy it is to do.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb Clams
1 Yellow Onion
1/2 stick Butter
Garlic Salt
Garlic Powder
Perfect Pinch: Cajun
Ground Black Pepper
Italian Seasoning
White Wine

I began by putting my bottle of White Wine in the fridge. I then gathered the other materials. Make sure to scrub your clams with a brush or something since they most likely have some grit/sand/dirt on them still.

Dice up your Yellow Onion. I used about 3/4 of the Onion in this recipe. Put Butter in a saucepan and turn the heat to MEDIUM. Once the Butter starts to melt, add in the diced Onions.

I did my seasoning at this point as well. I did a healthy pinch of everything listed, with a little more emphasis on the Italian Seasoning and Garlic Powder.

Now grab your chilled White Wine.

Pour some in the saucepan once the Onions have caramelized.

Now find your clams.

Put them in.

Turn them every so often if you want. I did but I also have no idea if this helps them cook properly or not. When they are done, they will open up. Take them off pretty quickly once this happens.

I chose to serve them in a bowl along with a portion of the broth they were cooked in. Enjoy.

The Chef's Beef Stew

I love Beef Stew. I don't know any other way of putting it that even comes close to my obsession with this delectable dish. Everyone should make their own version of it. I have several versions of it, and so far this is my favorite version. It is subject to review and change, so suggestions are welcome. I'm sorry it took so long to get on here in it's truest form.

Ingredients:
1 lb Beef Stew Meat
1 cup Pearl Barley
6 stalks Celery, sliced
Carrots, diced
Russet Potatoes, diced
1 bottle Cabernet Sauvignon
1 qt Beef Stock
Garlic Salt
Lawry's Seasoned Salt
Smoked Sweet Paprika
Sea Salt
Fennel Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Ground Turmeric
Ground Black Pepper
Ground Aleppo Pepper
Dill

I began by gathering the main ingredients. I diced the Potatoes, Carrots, and Celery up. You can decide how much you want to use, although the rough ratio seen here is what I find to be a good mix.

I plug in my slow cooker and set the heat to HIGH. I dust the bottom with Lawry's Seasoned Salt first followed by the Garlic Salt.

In goes the Beef Stew Meat.

On top of the meat I added some spices because I like the meat part of this dish to be extra seasoned. It's optional since you can just add spices to the top of everything and it will still be pretty good. I just go the extra mile. I used the Smoked Sweet Paprika, Fennel Powder, Fenugreek Powder, and Ground Aleppo Peppers.

On top of that went the diced Carrots. They tend to take longer to cook so in the middle I think is a good place for them to absorb the liquid and heat involved here.

On top of that the diced Potatoes. Pay no attention to the Brandy in the corner of the picture, it was out for something that did not make the Blog. Maybe once I perfect that recipe, you all will get to see what it is!

Then the sliced Celery.

On top of the Celery I added about 2 pinches of Dill. Then the Pearl Barley went into the slow cooker. I listed it as 1 cup, however it is probably closer to 1.5 cups. I love barley.

Now that I have everything in the slow cooker, it's the main serving of spices. Ground Turmeric, Garlic Salt, Smoked Sweet Paprika, Fennel Powder, Ground Black Pepper, Sea Salt, and Ground Aleppo Peppers rounded this mix out.

Now locate your wine. Spare no expense...I spared $3.00 USD. I know, I have expensive tastes in wine.

I put in the entire bottle. I noticed it wasn't high enough, so I added in about half of the Beef Stock container I had. It was one of those pre-made containers that has about 2 quarts in it. There was some left over, so I rounded my usage to 1 quart.

When pouring in the Cabernet Sauvignon, make sure to pour it directly onto the spices you have on top of everything. If you don't, you run the risk of the spices cooking directly into just a portion of your dish. This causes some parts to be really spicy and flavorful while the rest tastes like nothing at all/red wine.

I left the heat on HIGH for the duration of this recipe since I am very impatient. If you have the time, like 10 hours, then bring it to a boil, stir, and put on LOW for the duration. It will cause the meat to be more tender, oh well. This picture is about 1 hour in.

2 hours later the color drastically changes to a muddy brown. It smells amazing and permeates everything in it's vicinity.

About 2 hours after that making it a total of around 5 hours, this is what it should look like.

Make sure to taste test each part to make sure everything is cooked properly. I checked everything about 4 times each. Yes, I'm a little piggy but I had to make sure.

If it isn't done, then just let it cook longer until it is. Mine was done so I plated it quite readily. Enjoy!

Center Cut Pork Chops w/Tomato based Sauce

Today before I went out for my NFL team's game, I decided that Pork Chops in the afternoon was a great idea! After creating that sauce the other day for my Short Ribs, I thought that a sauce would be a great idea.

Ingredients:

For the Chops
2 Center Cut Pork Chops
Fennel Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Ancho Chili Powder
Aleppo Chili Powder
Garlic Salt
Ground Black Pepper
0.5 stick Butter

For the Sauce
2 Anaheim Peppers
2 Tomatoes
3 Carrots
4 Scallions
2 White Onions
Ancho Chili Powder
Aleppo Pepper Powder
Turmeric Powder
Sweet Paprika
2 cup Cabernet Sauvignon Red Wine
1 cup Vegetable Broth
0.5 cup Red Wine Vinegar
0.5 cup Lime Juice
Fresh Oregano

Alright, so this recipe is very split up between the sauce and the Pork Chops themselves.

The sauce was created by getting the ingredients together first.

I then diced up the Anaheim Peppers, Scallions, and Carrots. I put these in the saucepan along with the Cabernet Sauvignon and Vegetable Broth. I also added the Lime Juice and Red Wine Vinegar at this point.

I then turned the heat to HIGH-MEDIUM and diced up the White Onions and Tomatoes and added them in, along with a sprinkling of fresh Oregano.

I then turned to the Pork Chops. I had the spice mix I used on the Short Ribs the other day pre-prepared so I spooned it out and added it to the Chops. In case you don't want to go look it up, it's roughly 1 spoonful of each ingredient with 2 spoonfuls of the Ancho Powder.

Using a large saucepan, I put in the Butter and let it mostly melt. Once it was at that point, I added in the Pork Chops spice side down. One spoonful of the spice mix went on top.

After about 2 minutes, I flipped the Pork Chops. They aren't that thick so they cook quite quickly.

About 2 minutes after that, the sauce should be almost done. I took everything but the liquid out and put it into a blender. I then pureed the mix for 1 minute. Then poured back into the liquid from before and heated to boiling. Shut it off at that point and stir together.

Your Pork Chops should be done about the time you turn off that Blender. Take them off and put them on a plate to serve. Add the sauce once you are done. Enjoy.

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.