Home Office Lunch

September 10, 2023September 10, 2023

Peach Jam

I had a hard time getting my jam making process dialed in. For me, jam recipes can be confusing, primarily because:

the different types of pectin available in many stores don’t correspond with how the recipes are written; and
when we say that a recipe needs 4 cups of fruit, how exactly are we measuring 4 cups? Is the fruit mashed? Chunked? Pureed?

In this recipe, the fruit is blended to a rough liquid, and that’s what we use to measure volume. I use an immersion blender to process the fruit, but any blender will do. The ingredients in this recipe are keyed to the amount of fruit, primarily because that’s the hardest thing to know ahead of time.

I also use weights in this recipe because that’s an easier way for me to get the exact measurements I need. Obviously, to use weights, you need a kitchen scale. I use the OXO Good Grips scale, but this review of scales gives you a few different options.

If you don’t have a scale, the weights can be converted to volume.

1 tablespoon pectin = 11 grams
1 cup sugar = 200 grams

This recipe is great for peaches and nectarines, separately or in combination. If you want the jam to have some extra kick, add approximately 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of chipotle pepper per 1 cup of peaches, so 8 cups of peaches would have 1-2 teaspoons chipotle.

One other detail: a lot of peach jam recipes apparently have very strong feelings about peeling peaches. I’m very happy for them, and if you want to waste your time peeling peaches knock yourself out. This recipe does not call for peeling peaches. Personally, when making jam from white peaches, the skin gives the jam a deep rich reddish tint that is hard to achieve otherwise.

But hey – if you really want to peel your peaches, have at it.

Ingredients

1 cup peaches
11 grams powdered pectin (I use the Ball RealFruit Classic Pectin)
167 grams sugar
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
Bourbon (water can also work) – see instructions below

Instructions

1. Juice 1-2 lemons. Set the lemon juice aside

2. Take the pits out of the peaches and cut them into rough quarters. Don’t worry about being precise, as all the peaches will be blended.

3. Measure out approximately half the lemon juice you think you will need, and pour that over the peaches. Break up the large chunks with a stick blender, potato masher, or regular blender. Measure the volume of peaches, as this is what you will use to determine the amount or the other ingredients.

4. Now that you have a clear sense of the volume of your peaches, add the remaining lemon juice to the peaches. (ie, if you have 6 cups peaches, and you added 1 tablespoon lemon juice prior to blending, add an additional 2 tablespoons lemon juice to keep the ratio of lemon juice to peaches accurate).

5. In a separate bowl, measure out the sugar. Set this bowl aside.

6. In a separate bowl, measure out the correct amount of pectin. Spoon a small amount of the peach/lemon mix over the pectin. Add some bourbon or whiskey to the mix. Stir the ingredients together until the pectin is fully dissolved. If you are adding chipotle or any other spice, add it in with the pectin to ensure it dissolves fully.

7. Add the pectin/peach/bourbon blend back to the rest of the peaches. Heat on medium heat, then increase to medium-high to high heat, stirring constantly, to bring to a rolling boil.

8. Decrease the heat to add the sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then return to medium-high to high heat to bring back to a rolling boil. Stir the mix regularly to constantly.

9. Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, keep it there for one minute, stirring constantly. After a minute, turn off the heat, and put the jam in jars.

10. If you are preserving the jam, proceed on with your preferred method of canning. Otherwise, cover the jam, put it in the fridge, and enjoy over the next few weeks!

June 25, 2023June 25, 2023

Blackberry and Apricot Jam

Apricot jam is one of my favorites, and blackberries are an amazing fruit. Blackberry jam, however, is often a bit sweet for my taste. In this recipe, I bring together these two flavors in a jam that is a nice balance between sweet and tart, and combines the deliciousness of these two fruits.

Both blackberries and apricots have high a reasonable amount of pectin, which means that the pectin can be omitted. Personally, I like the consistency that adding pectin brings, which is why I use it.

Some recipes call for peeling the apricots. You can if you want, but it’s not necessary. There are some folks who insist that peeling the apricots gives a better texture, but I have found the difference between peeled and unpeeled to be somewhere between minimal to nonexistent. The same is true of peach jam (or any jam made from a stonefruit).

This recipe makes somewhere between 14-18 cups of jam, which might be more than some people want. Cutting the recipe in half works for people who want less jam.

This recipe builds on this blackberry jam recipe, and this apricot jam recipe.

Ingredients

2 lemons (zested, and juiced to get 4 tablespoons lemon juice)
Slightly more than 4 lbs apricots (total 4 pounds pitted)
8-10 cups blackberries (1475 grams, or 3 1/4 pounds)
3 1/2 cups sugar, plus an additional 7 cups sugar
2 pouches of liquid pectin

Steps

1. Zest and juice 2 lemons.

2. Remove the pits from approximately 4 1/2 pounds of apricots. You want 4 pounds total, and when I have done this recipe just under 4 1/2 pounds apricots yielded 4 pounds pitted apricots. Slice the apricots into chunks, and put the apricots in a large saucepan with 3 1/2 cups sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and lemon zest from 2 lemons. Mash and stir, then let sit for 10 minutes (or as long as it takes you to prepare the blackberries).

Apricots, sugar, and lemon juice in a large saucepan

3. Rinse approximately 8-10 cups of blackberries. The goal here is to get 4 full cups of berry juice — ie, without the seeds. If you like picking seeds out of your teeth, leave the seeds in, but I don’t recommend this, and I’m not sure how that will impact the proportions of the recipe.

4. Put the berries in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Mash the berries with a potato masher and simmer for around 5-10 minutes. Run the berry mix through a food mill or a fine strainer to remove the seeds.

Blackberries in a food mill to remove the seeds.

5. Measure 4 cups of the berry juice and add it to the apricots. Add 7 cups granulated sugar along with the blackberry and lemon juice.

Blackberry juice, no seeds, and the apricots.

6. Turn the heat to medium, and stir the blackberries and apricots until all the sugar has dissolved. If you want to ensure you have a smooth jam, use an immersion blender or potato masher on the remaining chunks of apricot. The pieces will generally break up as the apricot and blackberries boil, but mashing them removes all doubt.

7. Increase the heat to medium high and bring to a rolling boil. As the fruit mix boils, you might see a foam rise to the top. This foam is delicious, edible, and poses no problems, and it generally subsides once pectin is added at the end, but some folks like to skim it off for aesthetic reasons. One additional reason to skim it off is that you can eat it after you have finished making the jam, but it’s not necessary.

8. Once the fruit mix has reached a rolling boil, decrease the heat and add 2 pouches of liquid pectin. Return the mixture to a rolling boil for one minute, then jar the jam.

If you are putting it in the refrigerator, it will be good for around a month. If you want to store the jam for longer, you can preserve the jam in a water bath canner (canning is pretty straightforward – the first time you do it, it feels tricky but once you do it a few times it becomes routine). Jam that has been preserved via water bath canning can stay shelf stable for up to a year.

After you have put the jam in jars, let it sit for 12 to 48 hours – the longer the better. The less you move it in the first 12 to 48 hours, the better it will set.

If you are putting the jam in the fridge, let it cool on your counter, and then put it in the fridge. If you have preserved the jam, let it sit in a cool, out of the way place overnight to let it set, and then move it to a cool storage place out of direct sunlight.

Makes between 14-18 cups jam.

January 15, 2023September 30, 2023

Kansas City-Style Barbecue Sauce

Three barbecue sauces - from left to right: Kansas City-style sauce, West Carolina-style sauce, East Carolina-style sauce

Making barbecue sauce at home is pretty simple, and it it gives you some great options for sandwiches, grilling, and adding some zing to meals that would otherwise be less than interesting.

Today, I was smoking up some pork shoulder for pulled pork, and I wanted to make a Kansas City-style sauce to go with the meat (the other sauce options included an Eastern and Western Carolina-style sauce).

However, many barbecue sauce recipes use ketchup as a core ingredient, which is fine, I guess, unless you don’t have any around when you want to make barbecue sauce, or when you want more granular control over the amount and type of sugar (and other ingredients) that are used in ketchups. In this recipe I use additional tomato paste and spices in place of ketchup, and make a couple other small tweaks that worked out pretty well, so I figured I’d capture the process so that, the next time I wanted to make this sauce, I didn’t need to rely on memory.

Some notes on the recipe:

First, if you are a purist, this recipe will almost certainly offend you. This is NOT a traditional Kansas City-style sauce. It is definitely inspired by KC style, but this is not a traditional rendering of a Kansas City-style sauce. It is, however, delicious.

Second, the recipe calls for sauteeing the tomato paste and spice mixture in oil. It can be tempting to skip this step, but please, don’t! Tomato paste is a pretty magical ingredient, and when you brown tomato paste you bring out an extra depth of flavor to an ingredient that’s already pretty savory. It makes this sauce better, and you should also use this technique when making red sauces for pasta, pizza, etc.

Third, this recipe uses uses ground chipotle pepper, smoked paprika, and ground ancho pepper. These spices bring both flavor and heat; they have a nice profile, and they work well together. However, feel free to experiment and adjust to your palette. Don’t have ancho pepper? No problem! Add a little more smoked paprika, or sub chili powder or ground red pepper flakes. Want more heat? Add more chipotle, or any other hot pepper you like. You can adjust the spice profile once all the core ingredients are together to bring it in line with what you like to eat. The same is true for the sugar levels – both molasses and brown sugar bring sweetness into the sauce, but honey could be subbed for either ingredient, or used in addition. Play with the levels and identify what works for you – it’s a pretty flexible sauce, so make it work for you.

Similarly, use water to thin the sauce to your desired viscosity. This sauce should simmer on the stovetop for anywhere between 15-60 minutes, and you can add water to thin the sauce if needed.

This recipe makes around 2 cups of sauce, and takes between 15-30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 5 oz cans tomato paste
2-3 tablespoons canola oil
6 cloves garlic, mashed via a garlic press
2 teaspoons chipotle powder
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon ground ancho pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1 to 1.5 cups water
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 tablespoon soy
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Step 1:

Put the apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, molasses, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper into a bowl. Set aside.

Step 2:

Measure 1 to 1.5 cups of water into a measuring cup or glass. Put next to the burner you will use for cooking.

Step 3:

Peel and mash 6 garlic cloves. Place the mashed garlic in a small bowl with chipotle, paprika, ancho, salt, allspice, and cloves.

Step 4:

Heat the canola oil in a medium-sized pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the tomato paste and bowl of spices (from Step 3) to the oil and mix. The spice-tomato paste mixture will darken in color; stir rapidly with a wooden/bamboo spoon for 2-3 minutes.

Step 5:

Use approximately 1/4 cup water to deglaze the pan and blend any browned tomato paste back into the tomato paste-spice mix. Once the pan is deglazed, turn the heat to medium-low to low.

Step 6:

Add the vinegar, etc (mixed in Step 1) to the pan. Stir until all the ingredients are smoothly blended. Add any additional water until the sauce is as thick or thin as you want it.

Step 7:

Get a spoon, and taste the sauce. This is the base sauce, and you can adjust the flavor from here as you want. Keep in mind that the spices will intensify over time (and: don’t reuse your tasting spoon! Get that thing washed!).

Step 8:

Set the sauce to simmering on the pan, stirring regularly to ensure that the sauce doesn’t burn. If the sauce maintains a boil after you stir it, the heat is too high. Allow to simmer for 15-60 minutes – if you are using the sauce right after you make it, a longer simmer can deepen some of the flavors more quickly. You can also use the simmer to thicken up the sauce.

The flavors from the sauce will deepen over time. The sauce can be used right after you make it, but/and it will start to peak 12-24 hours after you make it. Once the sauce is made, you can keep in in the refrigerator for several weeks.

November 26, 2022

Pumpkin Pie

While the focus of Home Office Lunch is generally preparing meals for lunch at home, having a slice of pumpkin pie as dessert after lunch, or as a midafternoon snack, is pretty awesome.

Pumpkins are easy to cook with; if you can bake a potato, you can make a pumpkin pie. This recipe is more of a guide; because pumpkins are so flexible, there are a lot of paths that lead to a good pumpkin pie. My personal preference is to play with the savory nature of the pumpkin — which is a squash — and go a little spicy. I use molasses to get a deeper flavor with the sweetness. If that doesn’t work for you omit molasses and only use brown sugar, or a mix of white and brown sugar. Build a filling that matches tastes that you love.

Every pie needs a basic pie crust. You can buy decent frozen pie crusts in stores, or you can make one at home using this recipe. The pie crust can be made days ahead of time, and a frozen pie crust can last weeks in the freezer.

The pie filling uses the ingredients listed below. Quantities and proportion are included in the writeup. I haven’t measured precise ingredients in years, largely because pumpkins are such a flexible ingredient. When adding spices, salt, and sweeteners, start small. It’s easy to add more, and impossible to take it out.

The core ingredients you will need are:

Pumpkins
Chipotle pepper
Olive oil
Sea salt
Molasses
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
Chinese five spice blend

Start with one medium size or two small sugar pie pumpkins. For reference, a small pumpkin is about twice the size of a softball.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

To roast the pumpkin, cut it in half, and use a spoon to remove all the seeds and stringy/fibrous bits attached to the seeds. Cut the pumpkin into quarters, and interior of the pumpkin with olive oil. Sprinkle the pumpkin with sea salt and chipotle pepper.

Place the pumpkins quarters on a baking sheet, and roast until the flesh is soft to the point where a fork passes easily though it/the quarters begin to sag down under their own weight.

Remove the pumpkin from the oven and let the pumpkin cool, then remove the flesh of the pumpkin from the skin. A spoon should be all you need to scrape the roasted pumpkin from the skin.

Roasting the pumpkin can be done 1-3 days before making the pie.

When you are ready to make the pie, preheat your oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit.

Roll your dough into a circle big enough to fit in a 9 inch round pie dish. Lay the dough in the dish.

To convert the roasted pumpkin into pie filling, mash it with your choice of a fork, a potato masher, an immersion blender, or a hand mixer. Add molasses and sugar to taste, and then add some cinnamon and Chinese five spice to taste. Start with approximately 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon five spice. I haven’t measured these in years, but I will add molasses, sugar, and spices to taste.

When the pumpkin mixture tastes delicious, add two eggs into the pumpkin and spice mixture. Beat the eggs, and then spoon the filling into the pie dish.

Bake at 325 for around 40-45 minutes. Unless you are 100% certain that your oven heats perfectly evenly, rotate your pie 2-3 times over the 45 minute cook time. The pie is done when you can insert a bamboo skewer into the center of the pie and remove it with no filling sticking to the skemer. If you don’t have a skewer, you can also use a standard table knife or a paring knife.

As I said earlier, feel free to play with the ingredients and the spice mix. Adding the eggs last, after the spices are dialed in, allows you to taste the filling without worrying about eating raw egg. Roasting a pumpking can feel daunting the first time you do it, but once you’ve done it once it’s simple.

November 25, 2022November 25, 2022

Ssamjang

Ssamjang is a staple in Korean cooking, and is traditionally used as a sauce in wraps. It packs amazing flavors, is simple to make, and can be made in advance and stored and used when you want to add incredible flavor to just about anything.

For more informed perspectives on Ssamjang, see these posts:

I like to have ssamjang on hand to add to use on just about everything. I’ve used it with dishes ranging from bulgogi beef to tofu with veggies over rice to grilled chicken. It adds incredible flavor, which is never a bad thing — especially on a busy workday when your lunch might otherwise feel mundane.

When I make ssamjang, I stick most closely to the steps described in this recipe.

2 tablespoons doenjang
1 tablespoon gochujang
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds (toast them beforehand to bring out flavor)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion (I generally go a little heavier on the garlic and onion)
honey (add until it has the right balance between sweet and salty)
mirin or unseasoned rice wine – add to adjust consistency, and until the acidity level is your preferred balance of salty, sweet, and acidic.

Start with 1 tablespoon each of honey and mirin/unseasoned rice wine vinegar and adjust to taste.

To start, mince garlic and onion.

In a dry saucepan, toast the sesame seeds on medium high heat until they turn golden brown and you can smell the scent of the seeds. This takes between 1-2 minutes, depending on the heat of your pan and how frequently you stir the seeds.

Put the seeds in a bowl, return the pan to the heat, and add canola oil. I recommend putting the seeds in a large bowl that you will use to mix the rest of the ssamjang.

Saute the onions until they begin to caramelize. Add garlic to the onions, and cook until the garlic also begins to brown.

Add the garlic and onions to the sesame seeds.

Add the doenjang, gochujang, sesame oil, honey, and mirin to the garlic, onions, and sesame seeds.

Ssamjang sauce ingredients, ready for mixing

Mix the ingredients. Adjust levels of honey and mirin/seasoned rice wine vinegar to match your preferred taste.

May 14, 2018

Grilled Rack of Lamb

Racks of lamb are generally sold as a full rack with 8 ribs. The rack can be cooked whole, or cut into individual pieces prior to cooking. Either way works just as well; the “right” way is largely a matter of preference, and some for some preparations (like oven roasting) it makes more sense to cook the rack whole.

While grilling, I have a slight preference for cutting the rack into individual pieces before cooking and marinating. If you buy the lamb from a butcher or a meat counter, most places will piece it out for you. This increases the surface area of the meat exposed to the marinade, and allows for a slightly faster sear on the grill. I recommend trying it both ways and experimenting to see what you prefer. The obvious upside of the experimentation approach is that you eat more rack of lamb, and everybody wins because these things are tasty.

In this recipe, I’m including a good general purpose marinade. While the marinade I describe here is pretty easy to prepare, it can be even simpler. A quick rub of kosher salt, pepper, and olive oil — applied anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes before cooking — is a great preparation for lamb.

Marination times also vary. I generally recommend an hour minimum for meat. For this recipe, I made the marinade the night before, and let the lamb marinate overnight.

The time required to prepare the marinade is between 5-15 minutes. The lamb can be marinated for between 1 to 24 hours. Cook time is approximately 5-6 minutes. So, for preparing this meal for lunch, you’ll be in great shape if you prep the marinade the night before, marinate the lamb overnight or starting at breakfast, and then prepping the grill about 20 minutes before you want to eat. While the grill is coming up to temperature, you can fix up a green salad with sliced avocado and and a rice wine vinaigrette.

Ingredients

1 rack of lamb (8-9 pieces), cut into individual pieces

Marinade

Lemon
Fresh mint – if you like mint, use more. If you have flawed flavor preferences and don’t like mint, use less or (gasp) leave it out entirely
Fresh oregano – as with mint, balance the amount of oregano against your personal preference.
4-6 cloves garlic
Olive oil – approx 2-3 tablespoons
Sea salt – 1-2 tablespoons
Freshly ground pepper – add pepper to taste, maybe 1 teaspoon. More won’t hurt things.

Other additions or substitutions to the marinade can include chopped fresh rosemary or dried cumin.

Preparation

Step 1: Juice the lemon, and chop the mint, oregano, and garlic. Add them all to a bowl.

Step 2: Add the olive oil, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper. Stir all ingredients together with a spoon.

Marinade ingredients, ready to go — Chopped and ready to mix

The marinade can be made multiple days in advance. It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. If you choose to refrigerate the marinade, make sure to bring it to room temperature before using it. The olive oil will solidify in the refrigerator; bringing the marinade back to room temperature allows the olive oil to liquefy.

Step 3. Put the lamb in a ziploc freezer bag, and pour in the marinade. Shake the bag gently to cover all the lamb with the marinade. Remove as much excess air as possible from the bag, and seal it.

Step 4. Put the lamb in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat!

Protip: It takes just as much time to prepare marinade for 4 pieces as it does 8 or 12. If you make more in your initial batch, you can have some for leftovers later in the week. Grilled lamb is delicious cold.

I generally eat around 4 pieces as a single serving, so eight pieces covers two meals.

Step 5. About 30 to 60 minutes before you want to eat, remove the lamb from the refrigerator. 20 minutes before you want to eat, spark the grill. We want the grill right around 500.

Step 6. Cook the lamb on the grill, approximately 2-3 minutes each side.

Step 7. Plate, eat, enjoy. Save your leftovers for lunch later in the week!

May 6, 2018

Simple Green Salad with Dressing

Salads are easy to throw together, and they don’t need to be complicated.

If you’re working at home, you need your greens.

Eat your greens! — Image source: https://giphy.com/gifs/food-angry-gifamerica-k2hh0zJzIBvY4

For a basic salad, get some mixed greens at the store. If you’re feeling ambitious, buy a head of lettuce and rip the leaves off and wash them. But, with either route, the process of making a salad is literally washing the greens, and then dumping them onto a plate. If you’re feeling really ambitious, get an avocado and slice it up*. Cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, snow peas, carrots, or celery all add some variety, flavor, or texture.

Homemade dressing can also be pretty simple. A great basic dressing is a mix of equal parts extra virgin olive oil and seasoned (or sweetened) rice wine vinegar.

Another straightforward homemade dressing is equal parts extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with a spoonful of stoneground mustard and some cracked pepper. This dressing goes especially well with sliced apple and/or dried cranberries.

For salad dressing containers, I use old jam jars. They’re a great size, and you can seal them up and mix your dressing inside them.

With the steps laid out here, you can prepare a basic salad in around 5-10 minutes.

* If you only use some of your avocado, squeeze lemon juice on the part that’s remaining and store it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. The lemon juice prevents the avocado from turning brown.

May 6, 2018May 15, 2018

Seared Ahi Tuna

This dish is pretty simple to cook and prepare. Preparation and cooking takes around 10-15 minutes.

The meal has one critical component: sushi grade tuna from a fishmonger you trust. If you have any doubts about this, ask the person selling the fish one direct question: can I use this for sushi tonight? If the answer comes back as anything but an unequivocal “yes” then I recommend looking elsewhere. While this fish will have a sear on it, it will not be cooked all the way through. Fresh, good quality fish is pretty important on this dish. I generally buy the fish the day before I am going to cook it, although if the fish is vacuum sealed I have kept it refrigerated two days before cooking it.

Ingredients

one piece fresh Ahi Tuna (Tombo can be a great substitute if it’s available); one person can eat somewhere between .25 and .5 pounds, depending on how hungry you are. Most cuts will be between 3/4 of an inch to 1.5 inches thick
toasted sesame oil
coarse sea salt/kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

Preparation

Step 1: Prepare the grill and get it heating. We sear the fish between 550° or 600°.

Step 2: Coat the fish with toasted sesame oil.

Step 3. Sprinkle one side of the fish with salt and fresh ground pepper. Flip and cover the second side.

Step 4. Wait until the grill gets to 550° or 600°.

Step 5. Place the fish on the grill and sear on one side for 30-45 seconds.

Flip and cook for an additional 30-45 seconds on the second side.

Seriously, avoid the temptation to cook it longer. Thirty seconds goes by really quickly, and with the grill at 550° that’s all you need.

To round out this meal for lunch, add a simple green salad.

May 1, 2018May 9, 2018

Garlic Butter (or spiced/herbed butter)

Making garlic butter, or some other variant of spiced or herbed butter, is a simple way to add flavor and depth to meals. The short version:

melt some butter, or allow butter to soften to room temperature;
mix in some spices or herbs to taste (and go light; it’s easy to add more, but impossible to take them out);
put the butter in the refrigerator.

And really, that’s about it. The spices and herbs you can add are really limitless, from coarse ground pepper to thyme to fresh rosemary to ground chipotle pepper or smoked paprika to herbes de Provence.

Either fresh or dried herbs can be chopped and put into the warm butter; experiment with both to decide what you prefer. Personally, I prefer fresh herbs, but tastes differ.

Garlic butter requires anywhere from 5 minutes to 60 minutes of preparation time, with somewhere around 5 to 10 minutes of active cooking time. Once prepared, garlic or herbed butter can be stored in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks, or frozen.

To make garlic butter, one additional step makes all the difference: brown the garlic in olive oil, and then mix the browned garlic and olive oil into the butter. Browned garlic has a great texture, and browning the garlic adds a sweet crunch to garlic. If the garlic was browned in butter, the butter would brown as well.

To make garlic butter:

Remove 1 stick of butter from the refrigerator and let it warm to room temperature. This can take 30-60 minutes. The butter can also be microwaved in a bowl in 15 second increments until the butter softens.
Peel anywhere from 3 to 10 cloves of fresh garlic (depending on the size of the cloves, and your love of garlic).
Mince the garlic into small chunks.
Heat a saucepan on medium-high heat; add olive oil and minced garlic.
Stir garlic occasionally until it browns.
Add the browned garlic and olive oil to the warm butter.
Using a spoon, mix the garlic into the butter.
Return the garlic butter to the fridge until it hardens, and use it as you would regular butter.

April 29, 2018May 6, 2018

Skillet with chorizo, onion, red pepper, greens, and cheese

This dish takes around 30-35 minutes to prepare from start to finish; 15 minutes of active time, and 15-20 minutes of cooking time. Skillets are great because you can make them with almost anything you have on hand. This also means that you can cook some of the items ahead of time, which cuts down on the active time.

The meal will be cooked in and eaten from a cast iron skillet. This recipe was prepared with a 6.5 inch skillet.

Ingredients

chorizo
spinach (can use chopped kale, collards, or other spinach-like green)
sweet onion (yellow onion okay, if you’re a philistine)
grated cheese (cheddar or Monterey Jack)
red pepper
2-3 eggs
bread crumbs (or panko)
butter (or garlic butter)

Preparation

Step 1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Place the skillet in the oven so it heats up as the oven heats up.

Step 2. While the oven is heating, brown the chorizo in a small pan on the stove. I generally use around 2/10 of a pound, but if you brown more you can have leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch.

Step 3. Chop onion and sauté in a pan. This can be done ahead of time; in this recipe I used leftover grilled onions. Cooked onions will last for several days in the refrigerator. When cooked, place the onions in a bowl.

Step 4. Chop 1/2 a red pepper. Place in the same bowl with the onions.

Step 5. Wash and chop the spinach. Place in a bowl.

Step 6. Grate or cube a small amount of cheese.

Step 7. Crack 2-3 eggs in a bowl and beat lightly – just enough to break the yolks.

Step 8. When the oven reaches 375°, pull the skillet from the oven and place on a the stovetop, or any other surface that can handle a hot piece of metal.

Step 9. Melt garlic butter (or regular butter) in the skillet. Coat the bottom of the skillet with breadcrumbs.