Lemon Caper Trout AND Sweet Beets and Apples

Sorry its been a bit of a wait for the new post. I've been busy, I'm not being paid for this so you know, got thangs to do.  So you might have noticed the CAPS LOCKED and in the title.  You may ask why. Welllllll, I made them both together and though they were both delicious, they didn't go together well.  So here's what I suggest. The trout make with some pasta or something with a nice butter taste.  For the beets, I'd say you want something a bit more earthy to balance out the sweet, think mushroom sauces, something like that.  Maybe perhaps you could slice em thin and put on a Turkey Burg mmmm. So for the first time I'm going to separate them rather than what you would do in the normal course of your meal.

So here's what you need...for the fish:
One large frying pan
Spatula 

2 pieces trout (uniform size is best, bout 3/4 of an inch think all the way through)
2 Tablespoons Butter
2 Teaspoons Capers
1/2 Lemon (or 1/4 cup of juice)
Pepper
Salt (to taste)

Pretty basic here-
-Add the butter, let it melt over medium low heat
-DRY and lightly pepper both sides of the trout
-Once the butter melts add the capers, let it sit for about 5 minutes
-Add the lemon juice after the 5 minutes
-Add the salmon as flat on the pan as possible aka no capers, heat for 4 minutes a side

To plate  put the salmon down to let rest for about 3 minutes while the sauce and capers stay in the warm pan, pour it over and if you want add a bit of zest from the lemon peel.

Not so hard aye, not gonna get much better going out so now you know, the side dish is a bit more exciting on your taste buds, don't see it as often.

Sweet Beets and Apples:
Equipment:
Medium frying pan
Spatula
Chef Knife
Tin foil

Ingredients:
3 medium beats (any color)
2 medium apples (I used some green apples but any apple will do)
2 Table Spoons of Apple cider vinegar
3 Table Spoons of brown sugar
1 Teaspoon of cinnamon
Oil
Salt

Here we go:
-Preheat the oven to 375
-Put the beets on the tin foil
-Cover in oil and salt and wrap in foil
-Put in the oven for 30-35 minutes (until soft)

Go to the pan:
-After about 10 minutes you can start the apples, we're going to skin and core the apples
-Cut in to wedges, 8ish pieces each
-Put the apple cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar to the pan over high heat
-Stir until the sugar is dissolved and turn down to medium heat
-Add the apples, cook for 6-8 minutes or until they are the texture you like
-Add the cinnamon and the rest of the sugar

-Once the beets are done, slice a bit smaller than the apples
-Add them to the pan, stir, taste, maybe a bit more salt, sugar or cinnamon, serve it

Hope you like those, give em a go, remember, USE THEM AT DIFFERENT TIMES, don't waste 2 delicious, easy dishes on each other.  Have a good'n

-AJ

Honey glazed chicken ROLLED

Hey guys, so started a new job today, right a job, ski instructing, whatever, but it will not diminish my delicious foods for you to try yourself, at home, in your mouth.  Today's dish was a struggle, not because it was super difficult to make but because I wanted to make something really good and really interesting.  I was going to do a Chicken Parm but it's been done a million times, when I give you my parm, it's going to be ridiculous and more than, bread chicken and sauce. So, this one is for those of you who like a little sweetness in their last meal of the day.  It has great texture and flavor that goes together so well.  Ready for what you need?

Equipment:
Small sauce pan
Small/ medium frying or saute pan
Broiling pan or something that can bake
Cutting board
Meat tenderizer
Chef's knife
Spoon

Ingredients:
2 Large chicken breasts
5 or 6 cups unpacked, uncooked spinach
5 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon smooth mustard (dijon would be good)
3 Cloves of garlic
Juice of half a grapefruit (or sub orange juice, about half a cup)
Coconut oil (or any oil to coat pans)
Goat CheeZe

Couple notes on spinach.  Cooked spinach is not fragile at all.  It takes a long amount of high heat to burn it. Like most green veggies, they're mostly water, so it all has to burn off before it can burn for the most part.  That being said, I'm gonna ask you to cook some spinach, add more and it won't effect the flavor, I promise.

HERE WE GO (Mario 64 voice, again if you don't know it, any higher pitched stereotypical Italian voice will do.)

Frying pan:
-Add oil, put on medium high
-When its hot, add as much spinach as will fit in the pan

-PREHEAT OVEN, 350

Sauce pan:
-Put honey, mustard and grapefruit juice in on medium
-Keep an eye on it, once it starts to boil, stir and make sure it all gets mixed
-Keep stirring when it starts to bubble, keep cooking for about 15 minutes

Frying pan:
-When the spinach cooks down a bit, add garlic, then more spinach
-Continue to add spinach till all is in a cooked down

Cutting board:
-Put the chicken with the full side up
-Use the pointy side of the tenderizer to tenderize the chicken, start from the fattest part and work out to the edges
-Flip and get the chicken just under 1/4 of an inch
-Spread goat cheeZe, leave about half an inch on each side clear, it makes it easier to roll
-When the spinach is finished, put over the goat cheeZe
-Roll from the bigger side of the breast
-Put in the bake safe pan
-Cover each breast with 3 tablespoons of glaze, keep some for reserve
-Put in oven for half hour, take out every 10 minutes, add more glaze
-After a half hour pour the rest of the glaze on and spoon some from the pan too

-Put on serving dish and slice 1/2 inch slices
SERVE IT

It's pretty good, give it a go.  Questions? Tweet me (and follow me) and I will answer as fast as I can, which is usually pretty fast: @AJ_Weinberg

See you on the flip side

-AJ

Broth Braised Chicken

Made this one last night, delicious stuff.  It's called braised because of the way it's cooked, there's no wine in it or anything so if you were worried, don't be.  This one is nice because you can use one pan to cook it all and your sides are right in the same place when you're done.  Braising is nice because it keeps meat nice and moist because of the low temperature.  Downside, unlike most of the dishes I cook, this one takes more than a half hour.  Ready? No, OK I'll wait...
...
...
...
OK that's long enough

Equipment:
Medium or large saute pan (WITH LID)
Cutting bored
Tongs
Slotted spoon
Chefs knife
Large bowl
plate for reserve

Ingredients:
Chicken with Skin, I used legs, you can use anything as long as it has skin
1 Onion (anything but red)
3 Cloves of garlic, Tip #6: Always have Garlic and onions in the house, they'll flavor most dishes you'll ever cook)
About 2 cups of chicken broth (or any broth, you can change the flavor with different broths, I used my girlfiends' leftover homemade broth from stuffing, highly suggested, so good Tip #1, Thanks Sam)
2 Roma tomatoes
1 stalk Rosemary
2 stalks Thyme
2 stalks Marjoram 
3 cups flour
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt

Directions:
-Rinse chicken and pat dry
-add oil to pan, put on high heat
-put flour in the large bowl
-put chicken in with the flour, toss, make sure it's all coated (use tongs)
-once the oils hot, add chicken, let the one side brown (3-4 minutes) then flip

Cutting bored, while the chicken is going
-peel the garlic, flatten with knife, don't cut
-rough chop the onions
(keep an eye on the chicken)

Saute pan
-once the chicken brown and crispy on both sides(3-4 minutes a side) set on plate and dump out most of the oil NOT ALL
-turn heat down a touch, add onions and garlic, pinch of salt (they'll be in there for about 10 minutes) stir every few minutes

Back to the cutting bored
-slice tomatoes long ways, then into slices

PAN TIME
-Once the onions are in for about 10 minutes, add the tomatoes
-add thyme, rosemary and marjoram (taken from stalks, Tip #1, MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER)
-stir a bit
-put chicken back on top of the veggies, what ever side is most crispy up
-add broth about half way up, so the top skin isn't covered, we want as much of the chicken crispy as possible
-put on medium heat with the cover on (slightly tilted to let some steam off)
-leave it like that for 25 minutes to a half an hour, check the temp (165 with a thermometer or cut into one and make sure it's all white)

Serve it up, take as little juice with it (hence the slotted spoon)

Broth Braised Chicken

 
                         

I like the flavor using the same pan, but to save 10 minutes you can fry up the onions an garlic separately

Try it, like it, tell me how it is

NEW TIP
#6: Always have Garlic and onions in the house, they'll flavor most dishes you cook

For updates, questions and comments follow me on twitter @AJ_Weinberg #cookingwaj

Not yet world famous Asparagus hash

Consider yourself lucky, this is the best side dish ever.   I was going to give you a whole meal with them but honestly the other stuff didn't come out the way I wanted and I'm not gonna put down mediocre dishes, not gonna happen, that's how you loose Top Chef.  Anywho, how was your Thanksgiving? Good, sweet, how many of you are having stuffing scrambled eggs for breakfast? NO, well you should, step one, stuffing and eggs in pan, step 2...Step 3, profit, end moving on.

ASPARAGUS HASH AWSOMENESS HAPPENING IN YOUR MOUTH:

Equipment:

CheeZe grater or food processor

Small Frying pan

Spatula

Ingredients:

15 Asparagusesssss

Half a Russet Potato

1 Sweet Onion (optional, you need a knife and a small cutting board if thats the case)

Tablespoon of coconut oil

Salt

So here's the deal, this is actually pretty healthy as long as you're easy on the salt.  Half a potato between 2 people isn't going to break your diet.  The reason it's in there is because asparagus when shredded still behaves like vegetables, it will get smaller, and it won't fill you up.  I will add onions usually but the basics of the dish is just asparagus and potato.  The nice thing is it all cooks at the same time so you add all the ingredients together.

CheeZe grater/Food Processor:

-Shred the asparagus from it's side one at a time, if its a food processor make sure it shreds it not chops it into pieces

-Do the same with the potato, skin and all

If using onions:

-cut into 1 inch strips, add them in with the rest of the ingredients, this adds a little sweetness 

Frying pan:

-Add your coconut oil, if its in gel form let it melt all the way over medium high heat

-Add your shredded ingredients, spread out evenly over the pan 

-Add a pinch of salt

-Let it sit for about 3 minutes then stir it up, repeat for about 10-15 minutes

-Once the potatoes are cooked all the way Tip #2 (add more salt if you think you need it) really flatten it, let it fry and get a bit brown

-Flip it, brown the other side, serve

If you really want to dehealthify it, use olive oil and before you flatten and brown at the end, add cheeZe to the middle of the mix

Hows that sound? Delicious, it is so eat it, tell me what you think, more recipes to come, very soon, like tomorrow.

Remember to follow me on twitter for recipe updates and random other things like how my fantasy team is doing @AJ_Weinberg

Jambalaya de Camarón (Shrimp) and sizzling mushrooms

Alright here we go again, I wrote this last night, posted it, when I went to add the pictures, GONE, WTH.  So here we go again.

This is that shrimp recipe I promised you, it's finally here, and trust me it was worth the wait.  First a shout out to de buddy @levnaginsky for giving me the book to inspire my Spanish ideas, follow him on twitter, hell appreciate it. So some notes on the mushrooms, YOU HAVE TO CLEAN THEM! If you don't your food will taste like dirt, literally dirt, mushrooms grow in the ground, they're dirty. Here's how, Get some COLD water running, not at full blast, its got to be cold or else the mushrooms get, well, mushy.You clean the cap with a mushroom brush (yes it exists) or I use the rough side of a clean sponge, the only clean enough for me is a new one but that's up to you. Once the cap is clean you can use a pairing knife to de-gill the mushrooms.  They're hidden in the middle of the mushroom so I got rid of the stems, if you like the stems, quarter the mushroom then you can see the design of the gill going threw, just pretty much scrape em.

Here goes the stuffage:

Equipment:
1 medium frying pan
1 small sauce pan
1 large cutting board
1 tablespoon butter
Pairing knife
Chefs knife
2, count em 2 wooden spoons (one for each pan)
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb of shrimp
3 cups of mini portobello mushrooms (when they're quartered)
2 Roma tomatoes
1 sweet onion
4/5 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of parsley
1 teaspoon sriracha
Some salt
Some olive oil

Here goes nothing, again:

-If you haven't already done the mushrooms, clean them and quarter them now, you won't have time later

Frying pan:
-add the butter on medium high, we're gonna leave it there till it starts to brown

Cutting board
-Cut the onion into 1 inch strips
-mince the garlic, put half with the onions and half with the mushrooms
-IF the butter hasn't browned yet, cut the tomatoes into quarter inch thick rounds, save em for later

Off the cutting board into the frying pan (into the fire, Hobbit joke get it)

-Now that your butter is brown, add the onion and garlic, stir regularly, don't let them stick(If you did cut your tomatoes earlier, do it now)
-Once the onions are the texture you like them (Tip #2) I like em after about 10 minutes, put the tomatoes in the pan, give em as much direct pan contact as you can, put a little salt in

-When the tomatoes start to juice, turn the pan down to medium, use your wooden spoon to mash em up, keep stirring regularly, cook for about 15 minutes

Now to the sauce...pan:

-coat the bottom in oil and turn heat to medium high-once hot put in the mushrooms and garlic, make sure the oil gets on all the mushrooms, stirring regularly
-cook for about 3 minutes then add the sriracha and stir in

WHERE DO THE SHRIMP GO??!!

-after the tomatoes have been in for 15 minutes put the shrimp in they frying pan with the onions and tomatoes
-shrimp take pretty much no time to cook, they'll get pink and curl a bit then your done
Mushrooms:
-After the mushrooms have cooked for about 10 minutes, check the texture, if you like it, turn the heat off, add more salt if you wish and the parsley(Tip #1), stir in

Serve the two dishes side by side, pour the remaining oil over the shrimp once it's plated


That's it, I promise it's delicious.  Follow me on twitter @AJ_Weinberg and that's the best way to ask questions or suggest proteins you want cooked 

NO NEW TIPS TODAY, sorry, you'll deal 

-AJ

Parm "skin" Salmon

Ok, I know how the vote went, my shrimp weren't ready to go but my salmon was so that's what I went with.  And I was in a hurry and this is what I came up with last night.  I probably won't put recipes this short but I do want to prove that a very nice meal doesn't have to take more than 15/20 minutes.  When you get home from work, if you don't have to thaw anything this dish can be made under 15 minutes. Here's what you need:

Equipmonk:
Frying pan with decent sides
Spatula or fish turner
2 (count em) 2 bowls

Ingredients:
1 egg
2 pieces of salmon 
1 cup Panko bread crumbs (any bread crumbs will work but these coat food better)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheeZe 
1/3 cup Olive Oil
Salt/pepper


Here we go:
-Add oil to the pan put on high heat and let it sit until later, we want it to burn off.

Quick note, flavored olive oils are nice to use as finishers, they don't really add much flavor when you cook in it.  Tip #5: use regular olive oil when frying EVOO (thanks Rachael Ray) causes more smoke.

If you want to add some sort of veggies to cook, throw em in, Kale works nicely, you get that crunch across the dinner just make sure you stir what ever it is you cook, don't burn it. but they can cook while you do the rest.

In one bowl:
-beat the egg, doesn't have to be hard just enough as if you were making scrambled eggs

In the other bowl:
-add bread crumbs, parm, and salt and pepper
This is a good time to use Tip #2, If you like the mix good if not, add more salt, pepper, parm, what ever you think, it's your dinner

Take the salmon 
-make sure the salmon's patted dry, dip one side in the egg then the same side in the bread crumb mixture

Here's where it gets interesting, why I call it "skin" not crusted

(remove any vegetables)
once the pan has pretty much dried up from the oil 
-Turn the heat down to medium
-add the salmons "skin" side down
-when it's crusty, about 4/5 minutes, flip em over, another 4/5 minutes and you're done

A common problem with salmon is people wait to finish cooking the salmon when they see the little white bubbles, THIS MEANS ITS OVER COOKED, you want the whole salmon to be almost opaque pink, not white



That's pretty much it. Remember on all ingredients, Tip #1 fresh shredded parm, fresh salmon and so on.
Don't worry the shrimp will get done tomorrow.  I need to rework the recipe tonight but it's good mang.

Tip summary:
#5  use regular olive oil when frying, EVOO causes more smoke

The Turkey Berg (burger)

TURKEY BERG!!!

I've been very secretive about my turkey burger recipe.  For those of you that know me I don't eat a lot of red meat, I really don't like it but I've been getting into it lately.  Basically what I'm saying is turkey burgers are right for me.  I tried my best to COMPLETELY COPY DMK Burger Bar (Chicago, heres a menu) flavor.  Have I done it? No clue, does it taste awesome? Absolutely.  Perhaps my favorite part about them is they taste good alone, with cheeze (that's right, with a z), or any delicious DMKesk topping you can think of.

They're good for you, especially if you use the weird ingredients like coconut oil and stuff, lean and awesomeness.  I try to make these once a week, use em for lunch usually, store em, eat em every few days, nom nom nom. Are you ready? Here goes.

TOOLS BRO
-A griddle pan or large flat pan (the less surface space the longer it takes, can't leave uncooked turkey in the fridge)
-large mixing bowl
-some sort of turning dealie spatula or something
-perhaps a cutting board
that's it, easy right

HOW BOUT SOME FOOD PRODUCTS
-2 lbs of ground turkey
-garlic, 2 cloves (refer to Tip #1) (I use 3, you use 2 I use too much for you)
-1 egg
-1 cup flour (I use gluten free flower, dosen't change the flavor and supposedly better for you)
-salt
-pepper
-cayenne pepper powder(ok #1 doesn't apply here, don't want chunks) (optional)
-oil or even coconut oil (again supposed to be better for you, does get a bit smoky and again doesn't change the flavor)

HEAT THE PAN
-put the pan on medium hot, you want it to be ready for you when you're done mixing the burgers, if your pans heat quickly (mine don't, high altitude we have stupid electric, I'm buying an induction stove) you can wait to heat the pan to when you're separating the patties (like I did in Chicago).

-if you are using real garlic as I like to, mince the garlic now before you deal with the turkey (don't want turkey hands touching your kitchen)
- The size of the garlic chunks very much effect the burgers, the bigger the more garlic you'll get when you get garlic, I change it every time depending on how I'm feeling but little minces are the way to go for first timers

In the mixing bowl

-you put the binding ingredients in before the turkey, its easier to deal with so...
-put in the flour
-crack the egg, don't bother scrambling it, it will break down
-add the turkey
-mix it up use your hands, not a spoon, just gets too hard to mix
-now add the garlic (#1!)
-hit it with just a little salt
-put a nice coat of pepper on top (don't layer it just a nice spread)
-if you're not using the cayenne, please do, it gives it an extra flavor profile that you'll miss, it's not hot I promise, 2/3 shakes of the shaker will do
-mix it up again
-take a sniff, if it doesn't smell like anything, add some more black pepper, (TIP #4 taste is so much about smell, if you don't like the way it smells, not only will your taste buds be adjusted, but you're already going to have a preconceived notion if you're going to like it)

For those of you who haven't heated your pan do so now (med high)
-separate your meat into nice round short patties, about 5 oz.

On the pan

-put patties on the pan, leave some space to work with

-once the bottom starts to have a nice brown color (4 minuteish) flip it and get the same color on the other side

-add your cheeZe about a min after flipping it if you're using cheeZe, you want it to melt

THATS IT

Now here are some of your questions, AJ, its turkey don't you want them to cook all the way? Yes, if your burgers aren't cooking all the way through you're making your patties too big. These are about lean meat, you don't want to have a 9oz burger that takes almost double the time to cook because of a lower temp, we want those sides to fry up.

That's a lot of words (do that in a Luigi from the Simpsons voice, and if you don't know what that is, any stereotypical Italian voice will do)  Enjoy your Turkey Burgs, they is good

Here they are with guac and a nice mixed vegetable jambalaya type mix I made, if you're interested let me know 

TIPS

#1

#4 taste is about smell

FOLLOW MY TWITTER @aj_weinberg

Welcome and Caramelized Onion/ Butternut Squash Soup

Welcome to my blog.  I have been playing (told by my girlfriend I should) with this idea for a while and it's finally time to start writing my amateur recipes down for whoever is reading this to enjoy (and lack of job).  Whenever I cook something interesting I'll post and tell you about my time and how delicious it is.  Ignore spelling and grammar thanks.  So here goes.

The first recipe is a Caramelized Onion Butternut Squash soup.  This takes about an hour to an hour and a half of work then you gotta let it sit to develop flavor.  And of course like any good soup, put it in the fridge and it will be better the next day.

Here's what you need:
5 quart sauce pot (with a lid is preferable) 
large flat bottom frying pan
emulsifier (best choice for soup) or a food processor

What about ingredients you say?
1 package of butternut squash, I use it from Costco, its like 3 lbs, roughly 2 butternut squashes(?) if you feel like cutting them up and all that noise make them cubes.
2 or 3 midsized onions
1 quart of chicken broth
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
Olive oil
thyme
salt and pepper

Flat pan
-cut the onions into thin strips
-coat the bottom of the large flat pan with oil and butter
-once hot, evenly spread out the onions, cook and leave in pan for about 10 minutes

Sauce pot
-coat bottom in oil and butter(all of it), put on medium heat
-add squash, stirring regularly, once soft just barely cover in chicken broth and leave until its at a medium boil

Back to the flat pan
-sprinkle salt and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar on to onions, stir every few minutes, let it stick to the bottom a bit too until they all start browning (35-45 min, don't let them burn, let em brown)

In the Sauce Pot
-emulsify (blend) or if you do not own a hand blender you can use a food processor  but don't put too much into a blender because you don't want to lose all of it and this makes a pretty good amount of soup so careful, this is why hand blenders are the awesomestness, just stick it right in)
-once the consistency is only a bit chunky, add some thyme (TIP 1: fresh is best always but dry works too) a bit of salt, a bunch of pepper and the rest of the sugar, lower to a simmer, stir every few minutes

SAME FREAKIN' POT
-once the onions are the correct amount of brown, by correct I mean you like the taste, (Tip 2: Taste as you cook) add them to the pot and cover a with a lid, slightly tilt, to let some steam out (you want it to cook down a bit).
-let it simmer for AT LEAST 30 minutes, remember TIP 3: the longer the better, and that goes for soup too, I leave it for about an hour but if I had time maybe 2.

Then you're all like "what should I do with all that extra time", and I'm all "cook another awesome dish" and then you're like "there's nothing new up yet" and then I say, "pshhh, you figure it out."

I hope you like my first post, let me know if there are problems and adjustments shall be made.

TIP SUMMARY 
#1 Fresh is best
#2 Taste as you cook
#3 When it comes to soup longer is better

-AJ

don't forget to follow my twitter @aj_weinberg