Easy Homemade Sloppy Joes

July 28, 2015Leave a comment

For most, the first thing that comes to mind when they think sloppy joes is a big can of Manwhich. Erase this thought! Homemade sloppy joes are SO easy to make and SO much better than the canned stuff. And, they really aren’t that much more expensive since you likely already have most of the ingredients in your pantry.

These home cooked sloppy joe sandwiches were the perfect weeknight meal for us after I had a long day at work because they’re quick to make and now I have lunch for the rest of the week! Plus, who doesn’t love a good ol’ plate of American comfort food once in a while?

So… Here we go!

What You Need:

1T vegetable oil
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt
Black pepper
1.5-2lbs lean ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 8oz can tomato sauce
3T tomato paste
1 cup BBQ sauce
2T Worcestershire sauce
1t hot sauce (Cholula, Tabasco)
Hamburger buns, toasted
Sliced cheddar cheese (optional)

What To Do:

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat
Add the garlic, red pepper, and green pepper
Cook until soft and fragrant, season with salt and pepper
Add the ground beef, stir and continuously break apart until browned and cooked through
Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce to the meat, stir to mix
Simmer on low until the mixture thickens, remove from heat
Serve on a toasted hamburger bun, optional to add a slice of cheese. Oh go on, just add the cheese!

See? Wasn’t that *almost* as easy as just opening the can? I thought so 🙂

Happy eating!

Lindsay

Hawaiian Pork Katsu

June 16, 2015June 17, 2015Leave a comment

Aloha friends!

The hubster and I just got back from a whirlwind 3 1/2 days on the East Coast attending and being in the wedding of his sister Carrie and her new husband Anthony. They had their ceremony at their family’s church and a dream-come-true reception at The Wadsworth Mansion in CT. They then followed it up with an aloha honeymoon in Hawaii. Needless to say it was a struggle to quickly recover from a red-eye into wedding shenanigans into long flight back home. Caffeine was a must. As I got some super RARE and much needed coffee I passed an L&L Hawaiian BBQ restaurant that not only made me think about the newlywed’s awesome honeymoon but also made me realize that it had been waaaaay too long since I’ve had Katsu. Well, I have a blog now so Katsu it is!

For today we’ll be making pork katsu, sauce and jasmine rice. We did pair it with macaroni salad but I have to tell you a secret: I didn’t make it. Agh! Gasp! I know, I know. I just didn’t have time today. But if you have a killer recipe go for it. If not, stop at a deli counter and scoop up some macaroni salad.

And now for my other secret. I haven’t the slightest clue how to make Katsu sauce. I mean I had some general ideas of the basics but had to search for a recipe. I’ve had several diff kinds of Katsu in my time with one of my favs being from a tiny restaurant on the island of Lana’i that offers up pork katsu drowned under a fried egg served Loco Moco style with straight up mushroom and carmelized onion gravy. Sorry if I’m drooling on this post.

For this one I adapted a recipe I found on William Sonoma’s website. The issue is that I didn’t have two of the ingredients (Mirin or Hot mustard) so I winged it. The result was a less sweet and more vinegary sauce that I totally fell in love with. So, there you have it. It may not be uber authentic but it’s delish. Let’s head to the kitchen…

Pork Katsu & Sauce Shopping List

8 thinly sliced pork chops (boneless)
Breadcrumbs (I had Italian style on hand)
Panko
Soy Sauce
2 eggs
Flour (all purpose or any other flour would work)
Garlic Powder, S&P
Olive Oil
Jasmine Rice
Butter
1 tablespoon Ketchup
2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
1 tablespoon Hot Mustard (I used 1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard and 1/2 tablespoon Tapatio or Cholula hot sauce)
1 tablespoon Mirin (I used apple cider vinegar. I really need to restock my pantry soon.)

Let’s make us some Katsu.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F.

First prepare the dredging station for your pork chops. You’ll need 3 shallow dishes. In the first put 2 eggs, a dash of water and several dashes of soy sauce, several dashes of hot sauce and mix thoroughly (yolks should be totally broken and mixed in).

In the second dish put several heapings of flour, sprinkle with garlic powder and S&P.

In the third dish put 1 cup panko, 1 cup breadcrumbs and S&P. Start with this, you may need to add more later which is totally fine.

Take each pork chop, pat with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture. Now dip it in the flour, then the egg, then the crumbs on both sides. Place onto a plate or cutting board for safe keeping.

When all the chops have been dressed heat up a nonstick skillet on Med-Hi heat and hit it with olive oil. Wait until it’s pretty hot and brown each side of the pork chop. Make sure the pan has plenty of oil as you do this or else you’ll get blackened bits and not awesome tasty brown bits.

Place the browned chops on a baking sheet and bake until cooked through to a safe internal temperature of 165. This took about 15 min. May take more or less depending on the thickness of the chop.

While that’s cooking let’s whip up some rice and sauce.

In a sauce pan mix 2 cups water with 1 cup jasmine rice. Boil and stir until the rice is tender and water is mostly absorbed (took me about 17 min). HIt this with a tablespoon of butter, salt and mix well.

In a bowl combine the Ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire, mustard and vinegar and taste. Adjust seasonings accordingly.

Plate up your pork, rice, and macaroni salad and drizzle with the sauce. And there you have it. Homemade Katsu.

Aloha!

xoxo Shawna

Dudes in the Galley Meatballs

June 10, 2015Leave a comment

Alright, let’s be honest. (First, let’s get some wine). This next recipe is technically my own BUT it was strongly influenced by a knight in shining armor moment my favorite dude in the galley husband arranged a month or so ago. I worked way too many hours last week and it looked like not only would I be getting home way after dark but the tasty dinner I had waiting to cook would stay cold and lonely in the fridge. Out of nowhere the hubby volunteers to cook what I had planned for din din so long as I provided a very thorough set of instructions. He’s very good with lists. I accepted this challenge and texted…yes texted…the recipe below albeit in “Shawna shorthand.” Not only did the meatballs come out AMAZING but it inspired me to take it back to basics…and…basically…try to make it better than he did. I know, I know. If you’re not first, you’re last.

I present to you now homemade browned-in-a-pan-then-finished-in-homemade-tomato-sauce meatballs served over buttered creamy thin spaghetti. (Fun trick: once you assemble the dish the crazy good sauce falls over the noodles and the cream combines with the tomato and you end up with unintentional but oh so good pink sauce. Culinary magic trick. You’re welcome.)

The Goods

1 lb ground lean turkey meat
1 egg
1 cup (or so) breadcrumbs (last time I made this I had literally no bread left…which is so weird in our house but it happened. So I took my fav crackers Melba crisps and slapped them into the food processor and bam….bread crumbs. Today, I used the pre-made kind but only because I was trying to kick out two blogs before we head back to CT this week for the hubster’s sister Carrie’s wedding! So excited! Sorry, I digress…)
Worcestershire sauce (that’s how you know you get REALLY into cooking when you can spell Worcestershire sauce and not need spell check to correct it for you.)
Grated Parmesan (get the block, grate it yourself…it’s SO much better)
1 large can crushed tomatoes (wanna go crazy? Get San Marzan tomatoes. Chefs use them. It’s worth it.)
1 smaller can of tomato sauce
Veggie Oil (for browning meatballs) & Olive Oil (for the tomato sauce)
Seasonings: Garlic Powder, S&P, dried chili flakes (like what you put on pizza), dried Oregano, fresh basil (dried is fine if you have it)
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 carton of portabella or other mushrooms, rinsed, patted dried and diced
1/2 package thin spaghetti
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sour cream

Today’s music selection: 90’s hits on cable TV music channel. First up, my dream boyfriend from Junior High…Justin Timberlake. Perfect.

Let’s get saucy….

In a medium-large sauce pan heat pan up to med high and give it a couple of swirls of olive oil (Note: you’ll see in the pic below there is a can of diced tomatoes. I ended up not using it. Feel free to add some for texture but drain them first so you just have the tomatoes. The seasonings and such are measured to not include it so you may need to kick up the S&P and oregano if you do).

Add in onions, mushrooms, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp Oregano and 1/2 tsp pepper flakes

When onions are translucent add in the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce

Let simmer over med or med-hi heat while you make the meatballs. Adjust seasoning if you’d like but once you add the partially cooked meatballs a LOT of flavor will transfer to the sauce so maybe hold off for a bit.

Mini balls of meaty deliciousness..

In a large mixing bowl add in the turkey meat, 1 egg, 4 dashes of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 cup bread crumbs and S&P. Combine with your hands. I’m telling you, it’s really the only way to go. I ended up washing my hands in varying levels of intensity about 15 times during this recipe but you want to be safe! At this point you probably need some more breadcrumbs.

Add in 1/2 cup more breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup grated parm and mix one more time.

Form large meatballs (we got 10 total from 1 lb of meat) and heat up a large non stick skillet over med-hi heat. When heated swirl around some veggie oil.

Brown the meatballs on both sides. Look at those glorious brown bits of deliciousness. Man, that’s good.

Add partially cooked meatballs and some torn up basil into the sauce and kick up the heat a bit. Put on a lid and let cook until internal meat temp hits 165 (this should take about 12-15 min). If you have more time, set the temp to medium and let it simmer for 30 min. The sauce will be ridiculously good this way.

While the mighty meatballs are simmering away let’s make the pasta.

Boil pasta in heavily salted water. (1. I use Morton’s salt and 2. One of my favorite chefs, Anne Burrell, says the water should taste like the sea before the pasta hits it. Do as the pros do. Ocean the crap out of your water. It makes even store bought dry pasta taste great and not like cardboard.)

Cook about 8 min until al dente (nobody likes mushy pasta), drain and return to pan.

Add in 3 tablespoons salted butter and 1/2 cup (or 1 cup if it’s not creamy enough) sour cream. Mix religiously until well combined.

Serve meatball over pasta with sauce drizzled over both.

Man, the smells in this kitchen are crazy. Hubster just walked in and guessed right away what I was making. He then immediately got slapped with a kitchen glove when he tried to dip his finger into the bowl of meatballs pictured below BEFORE I took the picture. Unless his hand wants to be famous on a blog I suggest he not get in the way of his awesome wanna be pro chef wife and her food blog iPhone photo shoot. 🙂

Cheers to all the men and women in our lives that support us, love us, and inspire us to try to cook better than they can. 😉

Cheers!

Shawna

Sour Cream & Verde Chicken Enchiladas

June 3, 2015June 3, 20151 Comment

Ok guys. Seriously. These have got to be one of my favorite meals I make at home, period. Let me remind you I live in San Diego…the gateway to Mexican food. I’ve had a whole lotta years to experiment and taste amazing Mexican food and this recipe is the prodigy child of all those years. One of my fav restaurants growing up had these KILLER sour cream and chicken enchiladas and these are a nod to that memory.

But these enchiladas are made with flour tortillas?!?! Gasp! You make it all from scratch on a week night, gasp?!?! Yup! But you know what, you can bet your sombrero not only will you love these you’ll be willing to come to the dark side of “making food that tastes good and doesn’t necessarily fit the norm.” Exciting right?!?! You’re welcome. Let’s get cooking….

The Goods

3 Chicken Breasts
2 Anaheim chili peppers (dark green, medium to large is fine)
1 lb tomatillo peppers (round, looks like a green tomato with paper skin)
1 small tub sour cream
Taco size tortillas (we used flour…I know, I know…OMG they didn’t use corn. Nope, we didn’t. And we loved it.)
Pepper jack cheese (We like a bit of a kick and the sauce we are making is not spicy at all. This cheese is a nice addition. If you want you can replace with regular jack cheese, shredded)
1 cup jarred salsa (you can use homemade if you have it…I actually ran out of tomatoes and it was coming up on 6pm and my household had not eaten so needless to say I went with jarred. You get it, I know you do. That’s why we are friends.)

The Fiesta (Ironically, Enrique Iglesias just came up on our cable music channel…ha! It’s like the world knew I was blogging about enchiladas. Perfect.)

Preheat your good ol’ trusty oven to 350 degrees F. (Note: I’ve made these on the boat before and they were amazing. Make sure to pick a smaller lasagna dish to make them in beforehand so you don’t end up with a large pan and a tiny oven.)

Start by filling up a stock pot with water and set the heat to medium. Add your chicken breasts and poach until they hit 165 degrees F.

Next, using tongs you want to char your Anaheim peppers over an open flame (gas stove) or under the broiler. You want them super charred on all sides. When done add them to a small bowl and cover TIGHTLY with plastic wrap. Add something on top so it stays shut and don’t touch it for about 15 min.

After 15 min take them out and using a paper towel simply slide the charred skin off and you have this amazing dark green flesh left that is AMAZING to taste. Slice the peppers in half and remove the seeds. Chop it up and set it aside.

While that’s happening peel the tomatillos (the paper comes off super easily), rinse under water, cut into quarters and add to a smaller sauce pot.

Cover with water and boil until the dark green turns to pale green and they just get soft. (This only takes a few minutes. Just enough time to grab another margarita. Go ahead, we don’t judge here.)

Once complete place the tomatillos into a blender, add in about 1/2 c of the cooking water and lots of S&P. Give it a whirl until it looks like enchilada sauce. Pour out the remaining water in the pot and add the sauce back in. Hit it with some heat and let her reduce a bit and come together.

Once your chicken is done shred her up and return her to the pot.

Add in 1/2 c sour cream, the salsa, your chopped Anaheim peppers and mix it up. Taste. It should be amazing. Add S&P if needed. Now stop eating it or else you won’t have enough to make the enchiladas.

Spray the bottom of a lasagna pan with cooking spray. Grab a tortilla, add some of the delish chicken mixture, some shredded cheese, roll up tight, and add to the pan. Repeat until you fill up the pan. We made GIANT enchiladas (I had some help from the Dudes in the Galley tonight and well…they are men…and they like to eat…so big enchiladas is what happened.) We ended up fitting about 7 in the pan but you can probably get 8.