Greek Style Lamb Shoulder Chops

Lamb and Easter go perfect together  but who wants that plain old leg all the time? There's plenty of other lamb cuts that are way underutilized AND that you can find for a great price at your local butcher.  My favorite of these cuts is the shoulder chop.  On most animals, the should is very tough, but not lamb.  It's tender flavorful meat that is great for grilling and broiling.  This is a variation on a recipe I used to use during one of my stints at a high class hotel in Philadelphia.  This roast lamb shoulder this recipe is based on was on every Easter buffet menu, and it was always the first item to go.  This recipe serves 4.

4 lamb shoulder chops

Who needs a rack whe you got htis flavorful cut?

3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 sprigs rosemary, leaves only
Juice andzest  of 1 lemon
1/2 c. plain greek yogurt
2 tbsp honey
Water as needed

WHAT!!!!!?????!?!?!?  Nothing else??  Nope.  Simple as can be.  I like to do the marinating a day before so the lamb gets even more tender than it already is

1.  Simply enough, take your lamb, honey, lemon juice, rosemary, and yogurt and stick it all in the blender.  Pulse until everything is smooth.  Some Greek yogurts can be pretty thick, so if you need to add a couple tablespoons of water to thin it out, go ahead.

2.  Drop you marinade into a ziplock bag and then add the meat.  Let this marinate for 8-24 hours.

3.  When your ready to cook, just turn on your broiler or grill and cook to medium rare (135 internal)

Even though this marinade is being used for lamb, it's great for anything.  I used it on chicken, fish, pork, and in burgers well.  I like to serve these chops with some nice fresh arugula dressed with just touch of Olive Oil and black pepper.  If you want some starch, a nice soft polenta is a perfect match.  (Oh wait, I guess you guys will want that recipe too)  Don't forget to subscribe, and leave comments below.  Yes, a basic polenta recipe is coming soon

Happy Eating,

The Doctor

Ropa Vieja

Anyone who can speak Spanish knows what this means.  Yup, "Old Clothes".  Ropa Vieja originated in the Canary Islands, but it's the national dish of Cuba.  It was originally just a stew made from leftovers, but almost every Hispanic country has developed it's own version.  This version here comes from a little old Cuban lady named Maritza, who was my cafeteria cook in Mexico.  This recipe was so good and became so popular with the hotel Executives we had to put it on our banquet menu, and finagle a fine dining version to keep on the restaurant menu in the hotel where I was working.  

Ropa "Not Ganghnam Style" Vieja

3 lbs. flank steak, or skirt steak

2 tbsp. whole butter

1/2 c. tomato paste

1 medium onion, split and julienne

1 each green and red bell pepper julienne

1 c. beef stock, or beer ( I like to use Negra Modelo for this)

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 ketchup

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with chipotle (or whatever diced tomatoes you like)

1/2 c rough chopped cilantro

1/4 rough chopped Epazote

1.  Start by melting your butter in a heavy pot.  Add the onions, garlic and peppers and sweat down for about 5 minutes.  We're not going to sweat these all the way out, but just get them started.  They should look like this:

2.  After about 5 minutes, add your tomato paste and stir that around for just under a minute.  Add your beer and diced tomatoes.

3.  Let this come up to a simmer, then add your meat.  I leave the meat whole, but you don't have to if you don't want to.  Cover this and let it simmer for about an hour.

4.  When an hour is up, add your herbs and ketchup.  Cover again and simmer for another 90 minutes, or until the meat is falling apart.  

5.  When the meat is nice and tender, pull it out, and let it cool down until you can handle it.  Keep the sauce simmering and let it reduce a bit, about  1/4.  

6.  Shred the beef by hand and add back to the sauce.  Stir until everything is combined evenly and serve.

Traditionally, this is served with rice and black beans.  We always served it with tortillas as well, but I'm pretty sure that was because we had some really great tortillas in the part of Mexico I was in.  I've seen it served with fried ripe plantains (maduros) and crispy unripe plantain chips as well.  In the Canary Islands, they're still serving this with potatoes, so you can see how versatile this is.  You got questions?  I've got the answer,  just let me know in the comments.

Happy Eating

-The Doctor

Classic Turkey Meat Balls

Why turkey meatballs?  Well, ground turkey was on sale at the grocery store, so that's why.  Besides, it's something you can make with your fresh pasta recipe that I gave you earlier this week.  You can do this recipe with any meat you want.  Traditionally, Italians do meatballs with a mix of beef, pork, and veal, but I've used, chicken, lamb, and venison as well.  I've found this recipe to be the most versatile, but I'll also be putting up different style meatball recipes through the blog.  I like to make these in big batches and freeze them to keep on hand.  You never now when a party's going to break out around here.  This makes about 40 1 oz. meatballs.

3 lb Ground turkey ( or whatever meat you like)

2 eggs

1/3 c diced white bread, toasted

1/3 c milk

1/4 c. parmesan

1 tbsp. chopped fresh oregano

1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme

1 tbsp. garlic powder

1.  The first step is to make a panada.  Toasting the bread removes more moisture allowing it to pick up more milk, and, therefore, more flavor.  Mix the diced bread and milk, and let it sit in the fridge for an hour.  

2.  After an hour, add the eggs, Parmesan and herbs to the panada and start smushing it all together with your hands.  (Yes, "smushing" is a word, look it up in the New Jersey Dictionary).  Make sure everything is mixed well, then go back into the fridge for another hour. 

3.  Now it's time to get all of this good stuff mixed together!!  Put the meat into a nice mixing bowl and mix in your panada by hand. Before you get all messy, season the meat with salt and pepper.  You can always go back and add more.  If you want to taste test these, all you need to do is heat up a pan with some oil, then fry up a small patty.  Don't be afraid to do this a few times until you get the seasoning right.  

4. When the mix is nice and homogeneous (big word right?), take a one ounce s ice cream/cookie scoop, and a bowl of warm water.  Dip the scoop in the warm water then scoop out 4 or five meatballs.  After that you'll see the meat start to stick to the scoop.   Just simply re-dip and clean.  Keep doing this until you've scooped all of the meat.

5.  Now get a saute pan hot with some oil.  When you see a slight bit of smoke in the pan, start searing your meat balls.  We're going to cook them all the way here, only because we're going to freeze them, and they're so small.  

So that's it, they're ready to freeze or serve.  If you want to make these bigger, go ahead,  just make sure you finish them off in the oven. These will keep in the freezer a good couple of months, if you wrap them correctly.  As always, if you have question, just ask below.

Happy Eating

-The Doctor

Bourbon Brined Turkey

I've been getting asked all week, "Doc, waht'd ya make for NewYears?"  Well the first answer is no resolutions.  They fail, we all know it. If you're smart, you make an un-resolution.  Because it's not a resolutions it doesn't fail right?  My un-resolution was to make some wicked turkey for my guests.  I like to buy my turkey breasts whole on the bone, and roast them on the bone to get all that great flavor.  I'll either make a gravy from the bones, or hack them up and save for them stock.  This brine is so flavorful and juicy you really don't need any sauce (but you can make one if you want, that recipe will be up tomorrow)  this recipe will do  about an 6-8 lb. turkey front with the bone on. If you don't  have a pot or another vessel big enough to hold both breasts with the bone on, no big deal, look for some brining bags or ask your butcher to de-bone it.  If he won't email me and I'll help you out.  (If there are enough comments I'll do some articles on butchery too)  I let the turkey sit for 24 hours in the brine,then let it come up to room temp before it was roasted at 300 for 80-90 minutes and 450 for 15-20 minutes to get the skin nice and brown.  Cooking times may very for your oven, they're all calibrated differently, so if you don't have a meat thermometer, get one.  I cook to 155, then let it carry to 165, so it doesn't dry out.  You can do this recipe however you want.  I take the turkey off the bone and grill it in the summer, roast it in the winter, and sometime in the spring, I use this recipe as a base for corned turkey and corned beef (more on that in another episode) Here's your brine:

1 c. Your favorite Bourbon.  I can't officially make recommendation because, well....I like all of them...

Mmmm.....Turkey

1/3c.  kosher salt

1/4 c. honey

2 tbsp pickling spice

1/4 c. brown sugar

4 qt water

1-1.5 qt ice

1/2 bunch sage

1/2 bunch parsley

1. First step, we need to cook the alcohol out of the bourbon (SACRILEGE....) not really sacrilege, the meat will come out tasting funny, we just want to flavor from all of those wonderful smokey, cured grains.  Be careful not to set anything on fire, just put it in a pot, turn the heat on medium high and reduce it by half.  

2. This is easy right? Add the rest of the ingredients, except the ice, and bring them to a boil in a pot.  You need to stir every few minutes so the sugar and honey don't sit on the bottom and burn. You're only working with half of the liquid you need to chemically make a proper solution.  Why you ask?  Because you're going to add the rest of the liquid as ice to cool the brine down nice and fast (Smart huh?, I'm not an Evil Doctor for nothing....)

3.  After you've put the ice in the brine (please turn off the heat first....) put the turkey in the brine.  Use a plate or something to weigh the turkey down so it's completely submerged.  If you have a brine bag, turn the turkey every 4-6 hours so that brine gets distributed evenly.

4.  The next day, pop that bird in the oven, I like to baste it, even though there is s brine.  Baste about every 15-20 minutes.  If you need to add water to the  bottom of the roasting pan after 30-40 minuets or so, go ahead, sometimes you need to, to make sure you got enough of that beautiful turkey juice to baste with. When that turkey's done don't go hacking it up right away, although i know you wanna.  let that puppy rest for 10-15 minutes, then slice into it. that muscle tissue needs to relax a bit so those juices you worked so hard basting that turkey with stay in the meat.  (Don't throw that juicy bird flavored goodness away, it makes an excellent base for a gravy, or a great addition to a stock.)  As a general rule of thumb regarding the cooking times I talked about earlier, once your bird hits about 140-145, crank that oven up to the 450 degree temperature.  I will crisp that skin up quite nicely, especially with all of the sugar and salt it absorbed from that brine. 

As always, share out my blog on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Happy Eating

-The Doctah

Chorizo and Goat Cheese Meatloaf

So many of you have been asking the Doctor (that's me) to get off my butt and get this running again, so here you have it.  Ya' Happy now?!?!?!?  I doing this a bit differently now, with some new recipes and flavors, but still with my own personal signature "mad scientist" flair.  This blog is simple, easy recipes for the guys who can't cook, but wants to impress his friends and dinner dates. That being said, let's get cooking.   We're going to get this New year's party started right, with a really tasty meatloaf recipe that's built for parties.  I like to make these in muffins tins so they're finger food-ish (well for me anyway), or you can roll these into 1-2 oz meatballs and serve them in Romesco Sauce, a nice pepper coulis, or, my favorite, the good old Italian Gravy (Romesco and Pepper Coulis Recipes to follow soon.)  Before we get started, remember there are many types of chorizo, I used a hot Salvadorian style Chorizo form my buddies shop in Arlington, VA, but you can use any fresh Chorizo you like.   Let's get to the cutting board.  You'll need:

1/2 c. Onions, small diced (not minced, you want everything uniform so it cooks evenly)

Chorizo Goat Cheese Meatloaf, Pepper Coulis

1/2 c. Bell peppers, small diced
1/4 c. Chopped Cilantro
1 tbsp. chopped oregano
1 c. crumbled Blue cheese
5 slices of toasted potato bread, diced (It's works trust me)
1/4 c. mushrooms, chopped,
1 clove garlic crushed
3/4 lb. Ground beef
3/4 lb. ground chicken
6 links Chorizo sausage , uncased.
2 eggs
1/2 c. milk
2 tbsp olive oil, or vegetable oil

1. If you haven't' already, just stick the bread into the toaster (trust me).  when you've cut it up, take mixing bowl, pour the milk over it, mash it up and stick it in the fridge so it can soak up.

2. Take you olive or vegetable oil, and get it into a saute pan, on medium low heat.  Add your garlic and let it sweat for a minute or so (you'll know when it's ready when it starts to smell nice and mellow).

3. Add the rest of your vegetables to the pan and left them cook down, you want all of the water evaporated from the onions and mushrooms.  if you want you can add some wine, but just remember it has to be completely dry before it comes off of the stove.  You'll have to toss or stir this around every minute or so.

4. When the vegetables are down, put hem into the same bowl with the bread and milk and stir it around, with the herbs.   Let this mixture sit for about an hour.  If the bread doesn't absorb all of the milk  don0t' worry about it.  The goal is to make a pananda (softened breadcrumbs) but it doesn't have to be perfect for a meatloaf. This is also a good time to get your over pre-heated to 350.

5.  Next is my favorite part, the meat, take all 3 meats, get some gloves on (if you want) and dump it all into the bowl.  Season it with salt and pepper, add the goat cheese and eggs, and GO TO TOWN.  that means mix it.  I prefer to do this one my hand so you still have some goat cheese hunks in there.  if you want to use a mixer, partial freeze your goat cheese crumbles so they don't dissolve.  Remember TASTE, TASTE, TASTE.  You can take a bit of the mix and pop in the nuke machine (that's microwave for you newbs) to make sure your sample if safe to eat.

6.  When everything is mixed, spray down (or even better, butter) your favorite muffin tin and place in the oven for 35 minutes.  If' you're  making meatballs, just take a 1 oz cookie scoop, and form them with that.  You'll only cook the meatballs for 15 minutes.

7.  Serve these puppies up on your favorite platter with you favorite side.  I recommend home fries, (yeah those awesome potatoes cooked in butter with onions and bacon), or some healthy veggies if you like.  If you're looking for just saucing  it, you can find a good Ceasar vinaigrette and puree some roasted red peppers into it for an excellent sauce.

Stay tuned, because you mooks get a bonus recipe for new year's.  What is it.  for those of you that know THE DIP, you're gonna learn how to make it.

Happpy Eating, I'm going back to the lab

-The Doc

Mmmm.....Pig (Brined Pork Chops)

So it's getting to be cookout time. My favorite thing to drop on the grill, is a nice juicy pork chop. The key to making pork great, and not just good, is your brine. What's a brine? It's a salt and sugar solution you let the meat soak in before you cook it. Almost like a marinade, but better. Brines are very versatile and once you get the hang of making a basic one, you can get creative with what you put in it. Here's what I use in the summer:

4 ea 8 oz pork chops (bone in or out, depends on what you like)

Brined chop done under the broiler

2 cups good old H2O
1 c brown sugar
1/3 c Salt (Kosher or Sea Salt, not that iodized table crap)
1 tsp whole peppercorns
5 sprigs thyme
5 sage leaves
1 tbsp fennel seeds
2 each star anise (optional)
2 cups ice

1. Put all of your ingredients in a pot, except the ice and pork chops.
2. Bring everything to a boil, and stir until the salt and sugar have all dissolved.
3. This is where the ice comes in, it's a great time saver. Transfer the liquid you just boiled into some kind of container. Drop the ice in and stir. Your liquid should be about room temp.
4. Now for the pig. Drop your pork chops in and let them sit about 2-3 hours.
5. Get your grill ready and just cook. I leave them on until they're about medium. (about 6 minutes each side)

You can use this brine with any light meat you want. Roast a chicken with it, turkey breast, pork loin, whatever. This is an easy way to impress your friends at your next cookout.

Later,

The Doctor