Category Archives: Main Dish

Mar 04 2 comments
Beef, Main Dish, Pasta Entree, Recipes, Restaurants

Cincinnati Chili

chilithreeway

How we came to know Cincinnati Chili

Last summer we went to North and South Carolina and on our way there, we stopped by my brother-in-law’s place in Florence, KY. He lives in Kentucky, but Cincinnati is so close that you can see it from his condo. It was our first time visiting and we were there for only a short time, but he recommended we check out Skyline Chili. This midwest chain is big all around Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana with some locations in Florida. I’m all up for trying new things, but in the far back of my mind I was wondering what was special about this particular chili. Chili is chili, right? At Skyline, their chili has unique spices like cinnamon and allspice that change the flavor of your average chili. One of their most famous meals is called the Three Way, spaghetti topped with their famous chili and lots of finely shredded cheddar cheese. We loved this chili with its unique spices and a week ago I saw that Cook’s Country had a recipe for Cincinnati Chili! Could it be? Could I possibly make my own at home?!? Our homemade version was really, really good. You can taste those earthy spices and there aren’t any hot spices which is perfect for people that don’t like spice, but serve with your favorite hot sauce for an extra kick. The chili is also very meaty. This would be a great recipe for a crowd. It makes a great chili all by itself, but try it on top of spaghetti with cheese. It may sound strange, but it is really delicious.

Horrific Story

This recipe almost broke me last week. The following is an unappetizing and ridiculous story, but every time I make this chili, I will think of this first experience, so here goes. I looked at the recipe a week ago and saw that it was very simple and would come together quickly. I had almost all of the ingredients already in my pantry and I was planning on making it on Monday evening after work. As my onions were browning, I started to put the spices in a small white bowl and suddenly I saw…gulp…2 small bugs! Please don’t leave my blog. I’m not gross, promise. I was horrified into stunned silence. I seriously did not know what to do since this had never, ever happened before. I try to be so careful about how long I’ve had my spices. As my onions turned from brown to black I vented my frustrations to Marc while he was attempting to solve a work problem on his laptop. I finally snapped out of it and decided that the spice culprit must be the allspice. I purchased it about a year ago and I use it sparingly, so I figured, yep, that was it. Monday dinner was ruined. I dumped the bowl of spices in the trash along with any remotely suspect spice in my cabinet and then had to clean burned onions out of my pot for a meal that never was, grrr. Marc noticed my foul mood and told me to take a seat and he would whip up some spaghetti quickly. The next morning I bought some new oregano and allspice from the grocery store and was ready for round #2. This time, I started with the spices and thank goodness I did, because when I poured out my fancy (not even two months old) ancho chili powder that I purchase from a boutique spice place in my hometown, I saw something. Those somethings were not alive, but I will not expound further as not to gross you out. I couldn’t believe it. I was going to have to go to the grocery store again to buy chili powder.  In the end, the dish was worth the trouble because it made for a very tasty Sunday afternoon and now we have a memorable story that we’ll laugh about one day.

Cincinnati Chili

Recipe from Cook’s Country

Serves 6 to 8 for just chili, but can serve more on top of spaghetti

1 T. vegetable oil

2 onions, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 T. tomato paste

2 T. chili powder

1 T. dried oregano

1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1 t. salt, plus more to taste

3/4 t. ground black pepper

1/4 t. ground allspice

2 C. low sodium chicken broth

2 C. canned tomato sauce

2 T. cider vinegar

2 t. dark brown sugar

1 1/2 lbs. 85% lean ground beef

1. Heat oil in Dutch oven or heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat until shimmering. Cook onions until soft and brown around edges. Add garlic, tomato paste, chili powder, oregano, cinnamon, salt, pepper and allspice and cook until fragrant., about 1 minute. Stir in chicken broth, tomato sauce, vinegar and brown sugar.

2. Add beef and stir to break up meat. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until chili is deep brown and slightly thickened, 15-20 minutes. Add salt to taste and serve. Chili can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen up to 2 months.

Three Way Chili

1 batch of Cincinnati chili-recipe above

1 lb. spaghetti

2 C. cheddar cheese, shredded on the fine side of a box grater

your favorite hot sauce

1. Cook spaghetti al dente while your chili is simmering away.

2. Add a portion of spaghetti to the plate, top with chili and a generous amount of cheese. Add a few shakes of your favorite hot sauce, if desired.

Feb 11 2 comments
Main Dish, Recipes, Seafood

Crunchy Fish Wrap with Spicy Mayo

openfishwrap

I have this lofty goal of one day having a binder full of delicious recipes I can make in no time at all and when I start to think that dream is impossible, a miracle recipe like this comes along. I took a technique for fish I saw on Everyday Food and turned it into a different, but delicious recipe.

fishwraptoppings fishinskillet

Crunchy Fish Wrap

my recipe adapted from Everday Food, serves 3-4

1 lb. cod filet (or your favorite white fish), cut into 1″ strips

3 T. cornmeal (medium ground)

coarse salt and ground pepper

3 T. oil (high heat, flavorless variety)

Large handful of baby spinach

1 tomato, sliced or diced

1 avocado, sliced

4 whole wheat tortillas or other whole grain wrap

Spicy Mayo

1/2 C. good mayonnaise

1 t. cayenne pepper (it’s pretty spicy, but you spread it lightly)

*Have your wrap toppings ready because the fish cooks quickly!*

1. Pat fish dry and place in a shallow bowl. Sprinkle corn meal, salt and pepper over fish and toss to coat.

2. Heat oil in a cast iron or non-stick skillet over high heat. Brown fish on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side. Do not move fish during the first 2 minutes so it develops a nice golden brown crust. If you move it too soon, the fish will fall apart.

4. While fish is cooking, combine mayo and cayenne into a small bowl and mix well.

5. Transfer finished fish to a paper-towel lined plate and sprinkle with a bit more coarse salt, if desired.

6. Heat wraps in oven or microwave to soften or use my favorite method- put wrap or tortilla directly onto a medium-heat gas burner for a a few seconds until you see some dark brown spots, flip with tongs until the tortilla is warm and slightly crispy.

7. To assemble, take a warm tortilla or wrap, spread a layer of spicy mayo over it and then layer your favorite toppings with a few piece of crispy fish. Roll tortilla and serve.

Mmmm....spicy, crunchy goodness

Mmmm....spicy, crunchy goodness

Jan 10 NO comments
Main Dish, Recipes, Seafood, Soup, Vegetarian

2010 and Mushroom Tarragon Soup

Mushroom Tarragon Soup

Happy New Year! I am hoping 2010 will be an exciting year of more exercise (what a terrible cliche!) and my first full year of liking mushrooms. Mushrooms and I have had a hard relationship in the past, but I’ve decided we can make things work. Since our Michigan weather is now really cold and that white stuff is all over the ground, all I seem to want these days is soup. Maybe I want to be in one of the Campbell’s soup commercials. Remember the one with the boy that is a snowman and the soup defrosts him? While at my parents’ for the holidays, Marc and I went to one of our favorite new restaurants, “The Biscuit” and had a delicious Mushroom Tarragon soup. It was a bit creamy, but it wasn’t super thick. For me, it was perfection. It was silky and just really good. To combine my dreams of being in a soup commercial and my new found love of the mushroom, I sought to recreate the delicious soup. After some internet research, I think I found the perfect one. It’s full of flavor and gets its creamy texture from some low-fat milk and blending half of the soup. I know I said in a previous post that I don’t like getting out my food processor or blender for soups, but after working hard to chop the ingredients, I did not want to taste the soup and feel like it might have been better. The chopping is pretty labor intensive, but it’s worth it. I promise.

Mushroom Soup Ingredients Shallots in Pot

Mushroom Tarragon Soup

Adapted from Epicurious

Serves 4-6

1 T. butter (or olive oil)

4 shallots, minced

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups cremini mushrooms, minced

1 1/4 C. vegetable stock

1 1/4 C. 1% milk (you could use 2%, whole or half and half if you would like it extra creamy)

2 T. fresh tarragon, chopped

2 T. dry sherry

1 t. salt (more to taste)

1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper (more to taste)

1. Melt butter (or add olive oil) in a large pot. Add the shallots and garlic and cook over medium low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Add the mushrooms and cook gently for 4 minutes, stirring.

3. Add the stock and milk and bring to a boil (watch carefully as the milk can make this boil over quickly). Lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until mushrooms are soft.

4. Stir in the chopped tarragon, salt and pepper. Taste and check if you need more seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste.

5. Ladle half of the soup into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Return the pureed portion back to the pot and reheat slowly on medium low heat.

6. Stir in sherry. Serve immediately.

You know what else I’m resolving to do in 2010? I want to use up ingredients in my fridge before they go bad or before I’m sick of looking at them. I get very sad when I have to throw food in the garbage. Since this is my first time ever purchasing tarragon, I was trying to think of a way to use up the rest of my package. When I opened the package, there was a dandy marinade recipe inside and I quickly thought of a beautiful piece of halibut I had in the fridge. Oh yes, I used all of my tarragon and made two delicious and healthy dinners from it. Score.

HalibutwithSpinach

Tarragon Chili Marinade

Recipe from The Herbal Garden package of tarragon

I made half of the recipe and it made enough for a marinade for 1 lb. of halibut and enough left over to dress a spinach salad and spoon over the top of the finished dish. Below are the measurements I used, but you can double it if you’d like more.

1/2 pkg. of tarragon (or approximately 6 T. of tarragon)

1/8 C. chili powder (I used good quality ancho chili powder)

4 cloves garlic

1/4 C. lemon juice (I juiced 1 lemon)

1/8 honey (I had agave nectar on hand)

1/8 C. sweet molasses

1/2 C. extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste (I used about 1/2-1 t.)

Add all ingredients into a blender or food processor, except for extra virgin olive oil and blend well. With blender or food processor running, stream in olive oil (this was tricky with my blender, because it wanted to spit out of the top. I ended up adding a bit at a time and covering the blender completely after each addition and it worked just fine). Adjust with salt or chili powder to your taste.

Halibut with Tarragon Chili Marinade

my recipe, if you want to call it a recipe

3/4-1 lb. halibut filet (or your favorite firm, white fish)

1 batch of Tarragon Chili Marinade (recipe above)

4-6 C. baby spinach leaves

1 orange, supremed

1. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and add halibut filet. Cover the fish generously with about half of the marinade recipe. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wipe off all of the marinade from the halibut and discard so the sugars in the marinade do not burn in the oven. Bake halibut for 15-25 minutes or until it flakes easily.

3. Toss a few tablespoons of the marinade with spinach and add orange slices.

4. Add generous helping of salad to plate and serve halibut over the salad. Spoon extra marinade over, if desired.

We love, love, loved the soup. So flavorful and interesting from the combination of flavorful mushrooms and tarragon. We were really happy with how the halibut turned out, too. The marinade is sweet from the molasses and has a kick from the chili powder and garlic. I thought the orange in the salad really made the flavors come to life. This marinade would be really good with shrimp, pork, chicken, veggies, anything really. I like how 2010 is going already.

Dec 14 2 comments
Interests, Main Dish, Recipes, Soup, Vegetarian

Easy Red Lentil Soup

Red Lentil Soup

The good weather in Michigan lasted longer than any of us expected. We had warm, yes warm, days in November and on the east side of Michigan, we didn’t even get our first bit of snow until last week. Crazy talk. Now that it’s mid-December, though, the blowing wind plus low temperatures are what we’re used to around here. When the weather gets chilly Marc turns into a pyromaniac and tries to build a fire every night and I start dreaming of delicious soup recipes. There are so many good soup recipes out there, but alas, I do not want to blend anything in my blender to get the creaminess I crave. I want to throw yummy things in a big pot and come out with something that doesn’t need to be fussed with. Is that too much to ask? I know, I’m lazy. I think I’ve found a keeper, though. Healthy, delicious, easy and inexpensive Red Lentil Soup from Heidi of 101 Cookbooks. Seriously, it’s all of those things. I’ve made it twice now and I know the recipe by heart, that’s how easy we’re talking. The only ingredients I don’t normally have on hand are the garnishes Heidi recommends and they are a wonderful addition to this soup. Heidi is way cooler than me and just happened to have these items lying around and that’s how she came to garnish the soup in this way. Me, I make a quick trip to the fancy olive bar to get a few olives and make sure to pick up some good feta and then I’m good to go. If you have a Whole Foods by you, go to the bulk section for red lentils and brown rice, pick up their 365 brand broth and we’re talking super cheap.

Red Lentil Soup

Slightly adapted from Heidi of 101 Cookbooks

I added extra red pepper flake because I like spicy things, but you can kick that back to 1/2 t. like Heidi did. I also have tried this using 2 onions and 1 shallot because that’s what I had on hand and I did not notice a difference. It’s not fussy. You can garnish any way you like, but the creaminess and tang of the feta melting on top with the brininess of the olives and the crunch of the almonds is heaven.

Serves 4

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 shallots, chopped

1 t. red pepper flakes

6 C. low-sodium chicken broth, vegetable broth or water (I like 365 low-sodium chicken broth)

1 1/3 C. red lentils, picked over and rinsed

1/2 C. brown rice, picked over and rinsed

1-2 t. kosher salt (this will vary depending on broth you use, I used 2 t. with the low-sodium chicken broth)

almonds, chopped and toasted

your favorite olives, chopped (I used green olives from the olive bar)

feta cheese, crumbled

1. In a big soup pot over medium heat, add 2 T. olive oil and then the onion, shallots and red pepper flake. Let them brown and caramelize, stirring occasionally.

2. Stir in broth or water and bring to a boil. Stir in lentils and rice and simmer for 30 minutes until rice is very tender and not at all toothsome. During this time, I chopped up whole almonds and put them in a small pan to toast until golden brown. Chop olives, crumble feta and set the toppings aside. The lentils really absorb the liquid and will make the soup very thick. You can thin it out with broth or water until it is the consistency you prefer, but I enjoyed it as is.

3. Taste and check for seasoning. Add salt if needed. Serve topped with almonds, olives and feta.

I realize this blog has a definite lack of holiday cheer. I want to bake something sweet and seasonal more than anything, but I’m still fussing with baseboard molding at home. I have some ambitious baking plans next week, though, so here’s hoping that Santa drops off his elves and they are good with a caulk gun.

molding books

On the left we have recently caulked molding from our office that is awaiting its final coat of paint. On the right we have what our bedroom has become, a storage unit for our monstrous office bookshelf with the contents of our closet lining the walls. I despise the mess, but it’s motivation to finish.

Dec 07 1 comments
Cookbooks, Interests, Main Dish, Pork, Recipes

Sweet and Sour Lychee Meatballs

MeatballsinBowlNew ingredients are exciting to me and while lychee may be old hat for some people, when I saw this recipe I wondered, “What’s a lychee?” I’ve found that recipes by Jaden of Steamy Kitchen are so easy and accessible that I knew this would be a good weeknight meal with the bonus of a new ingredient. You can sub in pineapple for the lychee and that was my backup plan if I could not find this mysterious ingredient. I went to one of the markets around here that has a pretty extensive Asian aisle and at the bottom of the wire shelving was a bright blue can of lychee! The bold can was beautiful and I thought to myself that if I were more creative, I could make something decorative out of it. Instead, it was sent to the recycling bin so hopefully someone else will one day make magic with it.

Lychee and Peppers

The recipe was easy and came together very quickly. The only tricky part was forming the meatballs because the meat mixture is very sticky, but it was worth it. Jaden provides a picture of the easiest way to form the meatballs in her post. The only thing I would change for next time is to double the ingredients for the sweet and sour sauce so we have more delicious juice to spoon over our meatballs and rice. I served the meatballs and colorful veggies over brown rice and we had enough for dinner that night and lunch the next day. Go forth and make meatballs, but the veggies in the sauce were so good that you could definitely go vegetarian on this one. The lychee is unique, tasty and tropical tasting. I may try pineapple another time, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist that bright blue can.

FinishedinSkillet

Before you head over to the post and have your hopes dashed, Jaden was giving away copies of her cookbook and that contest has now ended. Hopefully Santa is planning on bringing Jaden’s cookbook to our houses anyway.