Hot Dog Contest Anyone!?!?

Sooooo, I love hot dogs. No reason to hide it. Some of you out there may frown upon the lowly hot dog, being that it's bits and pieces of this and that. Well guess what... that's pretty much what every sausage or ground meat is, but I digress. Covered in chili, microwaved with ketchup, or hot off the grill with kraut, I don't discriminate. So if any of you think you're man enough, lets see those hot dogs!

Deep Fried Hot Dogs with Goat Cheese and Habanero Relish

So my entry in the contest, which I currently enter into without any known competitors, are these beauties. A never deep fried a hot dog, so I wanted to try it. Simp left some dank goat cheese at my house and I wanted to use. I like hot stuff, so this is what I came up with, think Tempest (you cool people out there know what I'm talking about.)

So basically I deep fried a couple Nathan's hot dogs, which turned out OK, I think I prefer grilled though. I topped them with some of that lovely goat cheese, some habanero relish I made (recipe to follow), and some crispy bits of bacon. Bottom line- these were pretty frickin good. In hindsight I could have added something with a little sweetness, such as mango ketchup or even a drizzle of honey. The habanero relish was quite fiesty and definitely regretted it the next day, much like the tempest.

Habanero Relish

2- Habaneros (less or more to your liking)

1/2- Red onion

2- Cloves Garlic

1/2 Red Bell pepper

1- teaspoon or so of sugar

2- tbls or so of white wine vinegar

salt

Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend to your hearts content. Boom- Habanero relish.

Poached Eggs on Toasted Baguette with Goat Cheese, and Black Pepper Vinaigrette

I couldn't let these ingredients go to waste so I made my Sunday brunch on Saturday. This was awesome. I will be making this next time I have overnight guests.

Ingredients
•Baguette, sliced lengthwise*
•Olive oil, to brush
•Salt and freshly ground black pepper
•3 ounces fresh goat cheese
•2 thinly sliced heirloom tomatoes
•4 large eggs, poached
•1 cup micro arugula
•Black Pepper-Tarragon Vinaigrette, recipe follows
•Fresh chervil leaves, to garnish
•*Cook's Note: Not the super skinny kind of baguette
•Black Pepper-Tarragon Vinaigrette
•1/4 cup white wine vinegar
•1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
•1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh tarragon
•1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
•1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
•1 teaspoon honey
•1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

DirectionsHeat a grill pan and broiler.
Brush the halved baguette with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Put the bread onto a hot grill pan and grill cut-side down over high heat. Remove the grilled bread and spread the top of the bread with the goat cheese. Place the bread under the broiler and broil until the cheese is lightly golden brown. Top each slice of bread with a few slices of tomato and a poached egg. Cook's Note: Break the yolks on the sandwich.
Put the micro arugula in a bowl and toss with a few tablespoons vinaigrette and season with salt and black pepper. Top each egg with some of the greens and drizzle with more of the vinaigrette.
Vinaigrette:
Whisk together the vinegar, mustard, tarragon, and salt in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the oil, until emulsified. Whisk in the honey and black pepper.

Super Bowl Eats- Course 2&3

Potato Skins and Wangs!

Potato Skins w/ cheddar, and buffalo wings bw3's style. Word! Lazy cookin and lazy postin.

Super Bowl Eats- Course 1

Fried Cheese

Need I say more? I will, homemade mozzarella sticks and pepper jack cubes served with a quick homemade pizza sauce. Ask Giada

More to come...

Meatballs!

Cooks Illustrated delivers again! Leeann has been wanted spaghetti and meatballs lately, so I decided to whip out my trusty edition of Cooks Illustrated for cooking suggestions. Interestingly, they recommend soaking white bread (no crusts please) with a mixture of plain yogurt thinned with milk. Worked like a charm and produced crazy moist balls! I used 3/4 lb of chuck with 1/4 lbs pork butt. Add in some garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and you are well on your way to great tasting meatballs. The sauce is simple. Using the same pan that you cooked the balls in, saute garlic in olive oil and scrape up all the good bits from the bottom of the pan. Add a can of crushed tomatoes and fresh basil and enjoy. I served mine with a nice homemade Caesar salad. I use Tyler Florence's recipe for his ultimate Caesar salad (blend together a few anchovies, dijon mustard, garlic, salt and pepper, egg yolk, a little water, and oil). I always serve whole anchovies on my salad, but I've been told I like them more than the average person.

MY FIRST CHEESE - MONTEREY JACK!!

In case I haven't told you already, cheese is my latest obsession. I've read numerous books on the topic, become friends with a few interesting cheesemongers around town, and consumed way too much of the delicious curds for just one man. Which type of cheese has the honors of being my first you ask? Monterey Jack! Why - because it was invented right here in the old U...S....of....A. USA.. USA...USA!!!! (It was invented in Monterey, California by a man named Mr. Jack. I forget his first name and the year he did it, both unimportant details, but it was sometime in the late 1800s in case you were wondering. So here is the process for making cheese in a nutshell:

1) Pour your milk into a large pot. Place the large pot of milk into an even larger pot of hot water. That way, you can slowly increase the temperature and remove the pot if it gets too hot. Temperature is very important and each recipe calls for a different temperature, sometimes multiple different temperatures at the various stages.

2) Add bacteria to flavor the milk.

3) Add renet to curdle the milk.

4) At this point, the milk turns into a gelatin like substance that resembles very stiff yogurt.

5) Cut the "very stiff like yogurt substance" (all these things have fancy names, but I will spare the details) into smaller and smaller pieces. Now you have curd and whey.

6) Cook the curds to release more and more whey. Cooking times very drastically according to cheese types.

7) Drain the curds from the whey and then salt the curds.

8) Press the curds in your own homemade cheese press. I made mine for approximately 15 bucks. Pressing ranges from hours to days depending upon cheese type.

9) Let your cheese air-dry.

10) Wax your cheese. Age your cheese.

Texas Red - Chili Con Carne

Made some chili from my new bon appetit magazine subscription (thanks James and Maria). Although my senses were impaired because of a sinus infection, it still tasted pretty damn good. Romer can vouch for me, he ate some while we made our latest batch of beer. It needed a little more heat, perhaps a hotter chili would have helped. I also made Jalapeno-Cheddar Cornbread muffins (looks better than they tasted) Simpkins, this will help you get rid of all of those dried chilis in your pantry.....


Ingredients
•4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
•4 pounds well-trimmed boneless beef chuck (from about 5 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
•2 medium onions, chopped
•1 head of garlic (about 15 cloves), peeled, chopped
•1/2 cup ground ancho chiles
•2 tablespoons ground cumin
•1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
•1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
•1 12-ounce bottle dark beer
•1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
•2 teaspoons dried oregano
•2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
•2 tablespoons tomato paste
•3 tablespoons masa (corn tortilla mix)
•Coarsely grated sharp cheddar cheese
•Chopped green and/or red onion
•Chopped fresh cilantro
•Diced fresh tomatoes (optional)
•Sour cream (optional)
•ingredient info


Preparation

•Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add 1/3 of beef; sprinkle with salt. Cook until browned, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer beef to large bowl. Repeat 2 more times with 2 tablespoons oil and beef.
•Reduce heat to medium. Add 1 tablespoon oil and onions. Sauté until soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic; stir 2 minutes. Add ground anchos, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add beer; stir 1 minute, scraping up browned bits. Return beef and juices to pot. Add tomatoes with juice, 2 cups water, oregano, and 2 teaspoons coarse salt. Bring chili to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover with lid slightly ajar, and simmer gently until beef is just tender, 13/4 to 2 hours. Cool 1 hour, then chill uncovered until cold. Cover; chill overnight.
•Spoon fat from chili. Bring chili to simmer over medium heat. Stir in tomato paste. Sprinkle masa over; stir to blend. Simmer uncovered until thickened and beef is very tender, stirring often, and adding more water by 1/4 cupfuls if too thick, about 30 minutes.
•Divide chili among bowls. Top with garnishes and serve.


Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/02/chili_con_carne#ixzz1CfWPzYZr