Soul Food Night

So, we are skipping over last week’s calzones for the time being until The Bean gets the pictures to us.  Calzone night was the biggest dinner we have had (cue multiple freak outs) and was followed by our smallest dinner so far. Which brings me to . . .

Soul food night.  Probably the most involved cooking we have done.  Last minute several people cancelled (hate you all) and so we were left with half of our weekly average.

People: 6

Total cost: $65 (since we shopped for 12)

Challenge: Making soul food for the first time/ finding smoked ham hocks or smoked turkey necks.

We food shopped on Tuesday, as usual.  After trying H-Mart and Pathmark we finally found smoked pork necks at Stop and Shop.  On the official menu was: Fried cat fish, BBQ chicken, random second chicken, black eyed peas, and candied sweet potatoes with corn bread (store bought) on the side.  After food shopping on Tuesday we boiled the pork necks for about two hours so that we would have more time for other things Wednesday.  Obviously we ended up eating at 9:30 anyway.  But aside from a few set backs it was, as always, a good time. 

                                     The Wolf in his Wednesday finest

Side note: the Sun has had a broken phone for several weeks and hasn't taken pictures.  By this Wednesday that will be remedied and the blog will have an abundance of pictures as was originally intended. Thank you, Michael Scharf, for this week's pictures.

Fried Cat Fish

(Serves 4)

2 large catfish fillets cut in halves (we used basa)

1 large egg

hot sauce

About 25 Saltines smashed until almost dust

Cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper

Chili powder

Canola oil for frying

In a large mixing bowl, crack and whisk the egg, a dash of hot sauce, and salt and pepper.  Cover the fish in mixture.  In a large flat pan, mix the Saltines, the Cayenne, and the chili powder.  Dredge the fish on both sides generously.  Heat up enough canola oil to cover about half of the fish.  Test a drop of water in the oil.  Once it forms a ball the oil is hot enough for frying.  Fry one side until golden and then flip carefully.  Cook until white all the way through and the crust is golden brown.  Eat with tartar sauce, hot sauce, or as is.  

                            Fish frying in the front, black eyed peas in the back 

BAR-B Q Chicken

Sauce Ingredients:
4 tablespoon ketchup
2 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon Worcestershire
2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon mustard
2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
some black pepper & red hot sauce

One whole chicken

Combine sauce ingredients and mix them to create the sauce. Cover chicken thoroughly.
Cook in a pan for about 2 1/2 hrs at 350 degrees.

                                             Carving the chickens

Sun and the Wolf Chicken

 Sauce Ingredients:

½ cup olive oil

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

¼ cup Sriracha

3 garlic cloves

¼ cup Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons honey

juice of 2 lemons

One whole chicken

Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth.  Cover chicken thoroughly.  Cook in a pan for about 2 ½ hours at 350 degrees.  *Note:  While it did taste fine, we wished that the sauce had been thicker in order to create more of a glaze for the chicken.  Still working on that one . . . 

Black Eyed Peas

8 oz. prepared black-eyed peas

1 medium jalapeno pepper (chopped)

½ small onion (chopped)

3 or 4 slices bacon (cut up)

salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon.  Set aside but leave grease in pan.  In the same pan, sautee the jalapeno and onion until onions start sweating.  Heat up the peas in the same pan.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

*Note: to be honest, these were kind of boring.  We will omit them the next time around.                        

Candied Sweet Potatoes

3-4 large sweet potatoes
2 cups of white sugar
1 stick of butter (not margarine)
2 teaspoons vanilla
dash of nutmeg and cinnamon

Peel and cut potatoes into chunks. Rinse well, pat dry. Put the potatoes in a pot and pour remaining ingredients over potatoes.  Bake in the oven, stirring occasionally, until tender (about 45 minutes).  *Note: These were really delicious and tasted like pie.  Highly recommended.

                                                 Sweet potatoes

Collard Greens

1/2 pound smoked meat (in this case smoked pork neck)

1 tablespoon House seasoning, recipe follows

1 tablespoon seasoned salt

1 tablespoon hot red pepper sauce

1 large bunch collard greens

1 tablespoon butter

In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and add smoked meat, house seasoning, seasoned salt and hot sauce. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour. Wash the greens thoroughly. Remove the stems that run down the center by holding the leaf in your left hand and stripping the leaf down with your right hand. The tender young leaves in the heart of the collards don't need to be stripped. Stack 6 to 8 leaves on top of one another, roll up, and slice into 1/2 to 1-ince thick slices. Place greens in pot with meat and add buttter. Cook for 45 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. When done taste and adjust seasoning.

House Seasoning:

1 cup salt 

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

*Note:  This is Paula Deen’s recipe that we followed.  If we make this again we will not be adding the 1 cup salt for the house seasoning.  The smokiness of the pork necks was salty enough and we ended up with incredibly salty (though tasty) collard greens.  After some quick thinking we boiled new water to finish off the greens.  It kind of rinsed them off but the flavor remained.   

                                               Finished product :-) 

Quesadilla Night

This Wednesday's dinner was as much about the quesadillas we were eating as it was about next week's meal.  Thanks to Bambi, our sometimes sous-chef and this upcoming week's celebrity chef, we had a ballot.  Our guests voted for what ingredients they wanted in the calzones (one veg, one meat) for this following week.  Not everyone knows how to follow directions, I learned, but a decision was made and the ballots were a success (Thanks, Bambi!!).  Anyway, back to this week's quesadillas.

Guests: 14
Challenge: All vegetarian meal

On the menu for this week were two kinds of quesadillas: one with yellow squash, zucchini, and cheddar, and one with spinach, portobello mushrooms, and mozzarella.  Additionally there was a bean salsa, a mango salsa, and guacamole. Despite the Sun having several anxiety attacks about there not being enough food, the meal turned out great. Delicious! (. . .And there was enough food.)


Making the quesadillas: 

                                                 Sauteeing zucchini and yellow squash

                                                    Sauteed spinach and mushrooms

Normally we include recipes on this blog but this seems to be pretty self explanatory.  We sauteed up the vegetables and set them aside until it was time to make the quesadillas.  We put down one tortilla and then a layer of cheese, vegetables, and another layer of cheese.  We then put a second tortilla on top of this in order to maximize the amount of portions.  This later proved to be a problem as we started running out of tortillas.  We then switched to the regular one tortilla folded over method.  It tasted the same either way.

                                              The Wolf expertly flipping the quesadillas

                                                 Teamwork: the Sun cutting up the quesadillas

                                                Two kinds of quesadillas, ready to eat

The salsas and the guacamole:

Half way through making the salsas, the Sun received a call from her boss and had to do work for about 20 minutes.  She apologizes, again.
Anyway, so there were two salsas: mango and bean.  The mango one contained: two mangos, red onion, cilantro, cucumber, salt, pepper, jalapeno, lime juice, and sugar.  The sugar was the secret ingredient and boosted the flavors considerably.  The bean was black bean, red bean, corn, red onion, cilantro, and lime juice.
The guacamole was standard: avocados, onion, tomato, salt, pepper, lime juice (we ran out of cilanch).  Thank you, Joshua Bates and Mike Nep for chopping/mashing.  Josh loves cutting and scooping avocados. . . in a really weird way.

                                                     Salsas ready to be eaten

                                                Joshua Bates cutting avocados. . . at eye level

                                                                Dinner is served

             Thanks, Bean! Final product: quesadillas, salsas, guac, sour cream, salsa verde

And then after dinner. . .

                                                                Guests

                                                 Late night guests, as usual :-)

                                                   Looks like these guys got the memo

                                            The calzone night ballots for this upcoming week

                                                          The Wolf filling his out

                                            With Joshua Bates getting ready to tally up the votes

                                                          Tallying up the votes

                                   John O'Connell was in fact here (special guest of the week)

                                                 Fancy Wednesday night dinner beers

"American" Night

This past week we decided to make cauliflower mac n cheese (as our main, for the vegetarians), honey-soy chicken wings, and wedge salad.  This past week we also decided that we will no longer be going to Pathmark.  We aren't sure when exactly this happened or if it's a temporary change but we couldn't find half of the things that we needed and the other half were "organic" (We aren't sure how organic anything from Pathmark could actually be).  So after walking around and cursing for what felt like two hours, we left.  The Sun has a personal problem with the Stop and Shop in our town so we ended up at H-Mart: our home away from home.

Honey-Soy Chicken Wings

Inspired by Tyler Florence's "Sticky Honey-Soy Chicken Wings"

Served roughly 12

Ingredients

3 pounds chicken wings
2 cups soy sauce
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 lemons, juiced
salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup honey

Rinse chicken wings and pat dry. Remove tip and discard; separate each wing at the joint into 2 pieces. Place wings in a shallow dish and pour over the soy sauce, ginger, cilantro garlic, and lemon juice. Toss well to coat; marinate, refrigerated, for at least 30 minutes to one hour (if you are like us and don't have time to marinate for 2 hours). 

Remove wings; season with salt and pepper. Heat oven to 375 (we did 400 because we were making the mac n cheese at the same time) and cook for 30 minutes.  Flip over and cook another 30 (checking for doneness first).

                                                                       Ready to serve

Cauliflower Mac n Cheese

Inspired by Rachel Ray.

Could have fed probably 18 people (sent guests home with leftovers)

2.5 pounds macaroni
2 large heads cauliflower
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups vegetable stock (on a side note, why is this so difficult to find these days?)
6 tablespoons butter
2 onions, finely chopped
6 tablespoons flour
5 cups whole milk
freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons ground sage (crushed and with hard stems removed)
4 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 cups sharp Cheddar cheese
2 cups Parmigiano cheese
2 cups Pepper Jack cheese
1 small bundle of watercress (for garnish if desired)

Bring water to a boil for pasta. Salt the water and undercook the pasta by 2 minutes, about 5 to 6 minutes.

While the water comes to a boil, in a covered large pot heat olive oil over medium to medium-high heat.  Rougly cut up cauliflower (core cut away) and set in pot with 3 cups stock, cover and steam 12 to 15 minutes until tender. Discard water from pot.

Over medium heat in the same pot, melt the butter, then add onions and garlic. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes, until tender. Add in the flour and whisk for 1 minute. Whisk in the whole milk and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sage. When thickened, stir in the Dijon mustard and 2/3 of the combined cheeses.

Drain the pasta, add to the cauliflower, stir in the cheese sauce, transfer to baking dish, top with remaining cheese. Preheat the oven to 400. Bake until brown on a baking sheet to catch the bubble-over. The casserole will take 40 to 45 minutes to heat through.

Garnish bowls of cauli-mac-n-cheese with chopped spicy watercress if desired.
 *Note:  This is not the runny Kraft style mac n cheese that everyone grew up with.  For extra cheesiness we suggest replacing the Parmigiano with 2 cups Velveeta.

                                                                       Monster Tray


Wedge Salad

For this, we bought 3 large heads of iceberg lettuce and quartered them.  Typically, this salad comes with blue cheese, chives, and crumbled up bacon.  Given the massive amounts of cheese and calories that we were feeding our guests, we decided to make our own dressing.  Thank you, Bambi, for your return to the kitchen.  Our first time making dressing turned out to be a hit.

Ingredients for Dressing (measurements are estimated)

2 cups olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons liquid honey
1 tablespoon Sriracha
2 garlic cloves, crushed
salt and pepper to taste

Blend.

                                                          Finished product (thanks, Bean!)

And, as usual, the aftermath:

                                                           Ramer enjoying himself

                                                     Joshua Bates, post dinner

                                                 Sending the Wolf home with leftovers

                                                       Joshua Bates and Joshua Bates

                                Some sort of finishing school style balancing cup game (mid fall)

                                                                     I don't know

                                                               Bean and Bo, cousins

                                                                        Prom ready.

Thai Night

Wednesday's menu was inspired by Cooking Light magazine (www.cookinglight.com).  A page was randomly open to the soup section and the Potato turned to us and said, "This is what you should make."    It was the spicy Thai coconut curry soup.  As this was to be our main dish we decided to make it vegetarian.  On the side we made Thai chicken satay (skewers) with peanut sauce and a few bags of frozen veggie dumplings.  Boom.

Total cost:  $37.54
Guests: 11 x $5 each
Total: $55... :-)

Spicy Thai Coconut Soup  (our vegetarian version)

Serves 12 (original recipe serves 4)


Ingredients

6 teaspoons vegetable oil
5 cups sliced mushrooms (white button and oyster mushrooms)
2 chopped red bell peppers
4 teaspoons ground ginger
12 garlic cloves, minced
2 stalks lemongrass, halved lengthwise (we had a problem here that I will explain below)
6 teaspoons ground fresh chile paste
9 cups vegetable broth
3 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 package medium firm tofu
6 teaspoons soy sauce (fish sauce for not vegetarian)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup green onion strips
8 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
4 limes, squeezed (save juice, discard limes)

Heat a large pot over medium heat.  Add oil to pan, swirl to coat.  Add mushrooms, peppers, ginger, garlic, and lemongrass.  Cook until starting to soften.  Add chile paste.  Cook one minute.  Add stock, coconut milk, soy sauce, and sugar.  Bring to a simmer then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Cube tofu and add.  Stir and let sit until tofu is heated through.  Discard lemongrass.  Top with green onion, cilantro, and lime juice.

One key mistake that we made. . .  ALWAYS READ THE DIRECTIONS FIRST.   We never saw what to do with the lemongrass after placing it in the pot.  Soooo we minced it.  We assumed that it would soften up eventually.  It didn't.  This was a key mistake.  Everyone was picking "nail clippings" out of their soup.  It still tasted delicious but please make sure you REMOVE the lemongrass.  Do not chop it.

                                                                      Soup in pot


Thai Chicken Satay

(serves 30.  original recipe serves 15)
recipe from thaifood.about.com

Ingredients

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into bite-size pieces
1 large red bell pepper, cut into small squares
1 package wooden sticks for skewering
MARINADE:
4 tablespoons minced fresh lemongrass
4 teaspoons ground coriander
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon dried crushed chili flakes
8 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
8 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons ground ginger
6 teaspoons white sugar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
4 tablespoons liquid honey
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Mince all marinade ingredients or place in a food processor.  Stir well to combine.  It should taste salty-sweet with a sweet aftertaste.  Pour marinade over chicken and red pepper and mix well.  Allow to marine a minimum of 30 minutes (up to 24 hours).  While the chicken is marinading, place 30 satay sticks in enough water to cover and let sit for remainder of time chicken is marinading.  This prevents burning. 
Skewer the marinated chicken (one piece chopped pepper per stick).  Keep as much marinade on the meat as you can.  Save any that remains.  Place prepared satay on a foil lined cookie sheet and set oven to BROIL.  Place on second highest rung in your oven and allow to broil 5 minutes before turning.  After turning the first time, baste with leftover marinade.  Continue turning every 4-5 minutes until satays are nicely browned and charred at edges and the meat is well cooked.  The red peppers will e slightly browned or charred as well. 
Get some shot glasses ready and place some peanut sauce at the bottom of each glass with a few sprigs of cilantro.  Place satay stick. 

                                     Chicken Satay in little cup (thank you Bean for the pictures)

We have yet to succeed at cooking frozen dumplings.  We asked our friend and most loyal guest, Joshua Bates, to do that for us.  Thank you!

                                                                    Dinner is served

As usual, some people stay, some people go, and new people come.  This week, we decided to take more pictures and as always conclude the night with a dance party.  Here we are:

                                                    Peep the hat in the top left corner

End of night

Taco Night!

This past Wednesday, the Sun and the Wolf encountered their first and now ongoing challenge: vegetarian friends.  Recently, two of our regular guests decided to go vegetarian (We recognize that this is much easier of a challenge for us than if they had gone vegan... thank you, friends).  So from now on we must try and cater to these friends (as well as those with nut allergies, fish hatred, and the like).  Taco night it is.

We decided on options for both kinds:  chicken and chick peas.
This was again one of our cheapest meals.  11 people, $5 a head.  $55 and we broke even.  This may have been because we had a lot of the ingredients already in our possession, but hey. 

The fillings:  shredded chicken, veggie option, rice, black beans, refried beans, tomatoes, Florida avocados (the big ones), black olives, radishes, cucumbers (weird and not much of a success but seemed like a good idea at the time), salsa verde, pico de gallo, green peppers, limes, shredded cheddar and shredded Mexican blend, limes, jalapenos, sour cream, and cilanch.

The chicken:  The Wolf prepared the 8 drum sticks that we had hanging out in my freezer with Adobo and salt.  He cooked them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes.  The picture doesn't do them justice at all but the skins were pretty delicious.

After this, he, his lovely fiancee the Witch, and I pulled the meat off the bones and shredded the chicken.  He then covered them in taco seasoning and heated them up when it was time to serve.  They were delicious.

The rice:  The Witch has some sort of magical secret that cooks the rice in about 5-10 minutes (or so it seems).  I think that the trick is she puts the rice in first and then pours in the water.  The effect is slightly crispier rice that cooks way faster.  She used Sazon (Goya brand) for color.

For the vegetarian filling:  I (we) chopped up green peppers, a yellow onion,  one celery stalk, and garlic.  I sauteed that picture with a tablespoon of olive oil until soft but not browned. We mixed that with a can of chick peas and half a can of pink beans.  I mixed in two teaspoons of Sofrito (a garlic, onion, and tomato paste) and about half a jar of mild salsa.  I added a healthy helping of ground cumin and coriander.  It took about 8 minutes and then we let it sit until it was time to eat.  The cumin, coriander, and celery are key.

                                         It doesn't look like much but it was pretty damn good.

                                                                       The Spread

Different taco combinations:

Another successful meal.  Two of our regular guests told us it was their favorite so far. 
Next time: even more vegetarian options.