Original Food Dude

The art of cooking. The science of food.

Author: dangenho@gmail.com (page 3 of 4)

Super Simple Whey Ricotta

This is a down and dirty (hopefully actually very clean) whey to make ricotta, not a typo.   You will need the whey from another cheese making process to accomplish this.  Check out 7 steps to spectacular mozzarella to get the whey.

Ingredients:

  • Whey (all you can fit in your pot)
  • Citric acid ( about 1/2 tsp per gallon of whey)

Procedure

1. Heat the whey to 170 degree stirring occasionally

2.  Stop stirring and let heat to about 190 degrees F.

3.  Add citric acid and stir in quickly

4.  Watch for curds to start forming, they will be small at first.

5.  Gently push them towards the center with a slotted spoon.

6.  Let sit for about 30 min

7.  Ladle out the curds in to a colander lined with cheese cloth.

8.  Let drain for about 2 hours

9.  Refrigerate and enjoy in something awesome.

 

Meatless Mushroom Ravioli

This is an awesome dish packed with flavor that will explode with each bite.  You won’t even notice you ate the whole plate until its gone, I promise.

Ok, so I totally am a meatatarian, but I decided to change it up this time.  Remember that umami stuff I was talking about, if not then click here to learn a little bit about it.  It’s really not made up, I did think it was when I was in school.  But anyway, mushrooms are loaded with umami and often serve as a great replacer, and/or augmenter to meats.  In this case we will use them as a replacer, FYI spell check thinks that is not a real word.

Three for one. BOGO got nothing on this.

I do want to talk a little about mushrooms here, as you may know I am a wild mushroom hunter/lover/connoisseur/I eat them a lot and love them and would have them all day kind of person.  I mean I even have a post and YouTube about it.  I have other wild mushroom recipes, like chanterelle hollandaise sauce, and some others I will be adding soon, real soon I promise.   Wild mushrooms just have such a unique flavor that is so hard to define and there is just something about harvesting these guys up high in the Rockies that makes them even more wonderful, I only hunt for them above 8000 ft.

 

Picked a Peck of Porcinis, I mean who wants pickled peppers

But not every one is fortunate enough to have fresh porcinis (cepes, penny buns, steinpilz), dehydrated ones will work.  You can usually find dehydrated porcinis at a higher end grocery store near you.  I think Kroger Brands have them sometimes, Harmon’s  does, Harris Teeter & Trader Joes I’d imagine would and I would be devastated if the great Wegman’s didn’t, if you’ve never been to a Wegman’s you should go when you are in the north east they are pretty neat grocery stores.   If your store doesn’t carry them you can click on the pic below to order them directly from Amazon, skip the hassle of searching.

Tip: The porcini is pretty cool because it re-hydrates well.  The simplest method is to soak in water until rehydrated, about 30 min or so, use warm water but it doesn’t need to be hot.  Once the mushrooms are reconstituted remove from liquid and rinse (if desired).  The “broth” from rehdration can be strained through a cloth to remove grit and dirt (these are wild and grow from the ground) and used as a flavoring agent, but it is very strong so be careful with it.

This dude weighed 5 lbs

So enough about mushrooms what about the dough, well if you’ve never made homemade pasta you are in for a real treat.  You get to mix the dough directly with your hands so no special Kitchen Aid is needed, although one could be used.  One tool I think is almost essential to making good past is a pasta roller.  This little device helps roll nice thin sheets for making awesome and even cooking pasta, the last thing you was is uncooked gooey pasta, yuk.  Plus they are really helpful when you want to roll your own cannoli shells (I’ll cover that later).  Ravioli holy cannoli.

Pasta Roller

When the amazing flavors of the porcini mushroom are combined with the wonderful taste and texture of homemade pasta magic happens.  This dish is a fantastic meatless option and still satisfies even the most staunch of meatatarians.

 

Recipe

Serves: 4-6

Prep Time: 25 min ;  Cook Time: 15 min

Ingredients

  • Pasta
    • 1 cups all purpose flour
    • 2 eggs
    • Dried Basil
  • Stuffing
    • 1 lb porcini (3 oz dehydrated)
    • 2 cloves garlic, minced
    • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
    • 1/2 tsp black pepper
    • 1 tsp basil
    • 1 tsp thyme
    • 1 tsp rosemary
    • 1 tbsp butter
    • 1 tbsp olive olie
    • Parmesan
  • Sauce
    • Remaining stuffing
    • 1 cup cream
    • Parmesan
    • Salt and Pepper to taste

Pasta

Mix the flour and basil well.  Crack the eggs in to the flour mixture and mix with your hands. Once the dough sticks together knead it on a floured surface until it is smooth and tacky but not sticky.
Divide it in half.

Stuffing

Melt the butter in to the olive oil.  Dice the porcinis in to small cubes.  Saute the porcinis in the olive oil and butter.  Add the garlic, salt, pepper, basil, thyme, and rosemary.  Cook all this until it is soft.

Porcinis cooking

Roll out both of the halves of the pasta in to 1/4″ thin sheets.  If you have a pasta roller use it, if not work at it with a rolling pin.  Spoon some of the porcini mixture on to the bottom sheet of pasta, be sure and leave about an inch between each spoonful.  Cover each lump of porcini with a pile of grated Parmesan.

Cover the bottom sheet and porcini piles with the top sheet.  If you have a ravioli cutter, I don’t, use it to cut the raviolis.  If you don’t have a ravioli cutter use your fingers or a fork to seal in between each ravioli.

This is the fork method result

Boil these ravioli in a water with just a touch of salt.  Should be boiled about 5-7 minutes.

Sauce

Return the extra stuffing to the stove and add the cream and Parmesan, cook until it thickens.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve this over the ravioli.  Enjoy.

How This All Began

Crawfish boil for the local opera orchestra

Well after much pushing from my wife I’ve finally decided to break into the world of blogging again.

I had a blog at one time mainly just to store my recipes and share them with my friends and family, but after years of working as a food scientist, opening managing and selling a restaurant, becoming a certified wild mushroom expert, and selling at farmers markets I’ve decided to share the real world of food with those around.  So welcome to the science of food and the art of cooking.

Homemade Pita in the Oven

A few things to know about me.

  1.  I’m almost always sarcastic.  (My sister says she only listens to about 25% of what I say, that was hurtful)
  2. I’m fascinated by food production processes from fermentation, to rising, to culturing there is so much going on it is awesome.
  3. I don’t know everything (wife says I think I do, but this is me admitting to the world I don’t)
  4. I like to forage, wild stuff just tastes better (please don’t use things I say to make decisions about eating wild edibles)

Wild Huckleberries, Yum!!!!

So with all that welcome to the Original Food Dude, the place to go for all things foodie.

Black Bean and Steak Chili

PS My two boys I guess would be the Foodie Doodies  hehehe.

Pesto Pizza for your Bambinos, Buon Appetito

This is a fantastic and healthy meal that can be whipped up in minutes and devoured even quicker. This is especially good if you have a pizza stone on a grill.   One of the best things about this recipe is that it can be made with kids.  They love putting together their own little pesto pizza and watching them cook.


Servings: 4-6

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 15 min per pizza

Ingredients

  • Pizza Dough
    • 3 cups flour
    • 2 tablespoons sugar
    • 2 tablespoons yeast
    • 1 tablespoon salt
    • Warm Water
  • Pesto
    • 2 cups fresh basil
    • 2 tablespoons roasted blanched almonds (pine nuts work)
    • A few parsley sprigs
    • 2 cloves of garlic
    • Olive oil
    • 1 1/2 cups of Parmesan Cheese
    • Kosher Salt
    • Black Pepper
  • Other Toppings
    • Chicken (great use for left over grilled chicken)
    • Eggplant (broiled optional)
    • Fresh Mushrooms
    • Sun Dried Tomatoes
    • Feta Cheese
Beautiful fresh picked basil

Beautiful Fresh Basil

 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Pizza Dough

Mix all the dry ingredients. Then add water til the dough sticks together. It is better to make it a little sticky, it seems to rise better. Then break it into 8 or so even sized balls. Let them sit for 1/2 hr. Roll them out to 1/8 inch thick or so.  To thick and you’ll get raw and doughy pesto pizza, no on wants that.

Pesto

Using a food processor mince the almonds and the garlic. Add the basil and parsley and chop to a fine texture. Slowly add olive oil until a good consistency is reached. Add the Parmesan and chop, season to taste with salt and pepper.  Once the pesto was done spread it on uncooked pizza dough, that’s what makes it a pesto pizza.

Homemade pesto on pizza dough, yum pesto pizza

Add feta crumbles, followed by baby bella mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, grilled eggplant  and grilled chicken. The grilled chicken and eggplant were seasoned with Greek Seasoning and a little olive oil before grilling.

Diced grilled chicken for the topping

Grilled chicken

Broiled eggplant slices

Broiled Eggplant

The options for toppings are limitless: artichokes, zucchini, sausage, olives, etc.  Really anything you would like to try on it would be great.  Bake your pizza for about 15 min, or until the crust starts to brown slightly.   Then serve warm with fresh Parmesan and act like you made this whole thing up.  Always,  I mean always take all the credit.  Your family will think your pesto pizza are the best and no one will be the wiser.

 

PS I  will cook these on a pizza stone also.  If you use one cook at 500 and preheat the pizza stone then lower the cook time to about 5-7 min depending on the oven.  Check out these awesome tools to use.

Awesome pizza stone

Get the pizza out of the oven like a pro

My Favorite Lebanese Dinner, Kibbeh and Hummus

My great-grandfather came from Lebanon and settled in Nebraska.  That makes me about 1/8th Lebanese so I guess I have to have a favorite Lebanese dish and this is it.  My father told me about Kibbeh when I was young and how he would eat it as a boy.  We used to buy it from a Syrian man in Texas when I was in high school and I became addicted and learned my own.  This meal is teaming with flavor.

 

Servings: 4-6

Prep time: 40 min

Wait time: 30 min

Cook time: 30 min

 

Ingredients

  • Kibbeh
    • 1 lb lean ground beef
    • 1/8 lb pine nuts
    • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
    • 2 tsp rosemary
    • 2 tsp basil
    • 2 tsp thyme leaves
    • 2 cloves minced garlic
    • Salt
    • Pepper
  • Hummus
    • 1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans)
    • 3 tbsp tahini
    • 2 tbsp olive oil
    • 2 tbsp lemon juice
    • 2 cloves minced garlic
    • 1 tbsp Cavender’s Greek Seasoning
    •  Salt
    •  Pepper
    • 1 tsp Paprika
  • Pita Bread
    • 3 cups flour
    • 2 tablespoons sugar
    • 1 tablespoon salt
    • Warm Water

    Preheat oven to 450

    Kibbeh

Mix all the ingredients together. Shape into balls and place in muffin tins bake at 450 degrees until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 160.   True Kibbeh  has soaked bulgur added to it, as any true Lebanese would know, but since I’m only 1/8th I figure i have artistic license.  Besides this way makes it a little simpler and tastier.

Hummus

Mix all ingredients and blend in a food processor until smooth.

This hummus is dusted with paprika a few chick peas and pine nuts.

Pita

Mix all the dry ingredients. Then add water til the dough sticks together. It is better to make it a little sticky, it rises better.  Knead for a minute or two to make sure it is a smooth dough.  Then break it into 8 or so even sized balls. Let them sit for 1/2 hr. Roll them out to 1/8 inch thick or so. Put your top oven rack as high as it can go. This is the fun part, at least for me. Place the rolled out pita on a cookie sheet directly under the broiler then  watch it until it stops rising or gets some brown spots which ever comes first, the rising always amazes me, I guess simple things really amaze simple minds. Then flip and let it do the same. Then pull it out and enjoy.

The moisture from the water causes steam to form, the gluten proteins form a structure strong enough to encapsulate the air and making the bread “rise”.  Over kneading the dough causes excessive gluten formation and can toughen the pita bread, no kneading can result in no gluten and a weak and crumbly pita.  Gluten is really non existent in  plain flour, but is a formed when water is mixed with flour and the two proteins (glutenin and gliadin)  combine.

The white sauce is Tzatziki. It is yogurt, plain – not vanilla or strawberry or the awesome black cherry Greek Gods (drool) with grated cucumber and a small spoonful of garlic.  This dish goes well with my stuffed roma tomatoes (seriously those are great).

Spring Sprang Sprung (I wish it would get here already)

Winter has been too long this year.  I mean too long.  We’ve had about 175% of our normal snowfall this year.  We saw -25 degrees and very few sunny days, all the warm ones this year where snowy, so it’s been a long winter.

 

But today as I walked around our little homestead, signs of spring were showing so I thought I’d share some.

 

Garlic pushing its way through the snow

We try to grow a lot of the produce, some of the dairy, the eggs, and some of the meat we eat.  We planted hardneck garlic last fall and I was blessed to see it starting to green up.  The stems smell amazing (like awesome garlic) and can be used as a milder garlic (green garlic with the small immature bulb.)

Peach buds forming

Even the fruit tree buds where becoming apparent, our peach tree is young but may give some delicious fruit this year.  In our climate it is hit or miss, but the taste of the Elberta peaches merits the effort.  Seriously have you really  lived if you haven’t sunk your teeth into a peach so sweet and juicy that your instinct to wipe your face is overshadowed by your love of the flavor?  No you haven’t I say.

Raspberries!!!!

Who doesn’t love raspberries, and this was the first leaf to come out, even with snow still on the ground.  Our raspberries came with the place, honestly they may be a large part of the reason I bought it, they are delicious thornless ever bearers and produce two big flushes.  One in June on last years stalks and one in September on this years stalks.  Best of both worlds.

So spring has sprang has sprung and although we are still weeks away from tulips and daffodils at least life is returning to the farm.

Stuffed Halibut and Chanterelle Hollandaise Sauce

As promised a wild mushroom recipe.  Now these particular mushrooms won’t be in season until later this year, July where I’m at, but you can use some re-hydrated chanterelles when the real ones are out of season, just remember 3 oz dried is about 1 lb re-hydrated.   To re-hydrate simmer for 15 min in water, discard the excess water before use.   Check out my post about wild mushrooms and watch for some videos from the season this year.  In the meantime enjoy this scrumptious dish and take all the credit for making it up, no one will know.

Blue and Yellow Chanterelles

Serving; 4-6

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 30 min

 

Ingredients

  • Stuffing
    • 2 tbsp butter
    • 1/2 lb chanterelles cubed
    • 1/2 lb crab meat
    • Salt
    • Pepper
  • Fish
    • 4 halibut steaks
    • Salt
    • Pepper
  • Hollandaise Sauce
    • 1/4 lb chanterelles cubed
    • 1/4 lb butter
    • 4 egg yolks
    • 1/2 c fresh lemon juice
    • Salt
    • White Pepper
    • 1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Stuffing

Clean chanterelles.  Cube and saute in butter just until beginning to soften.

Add the crab meat and season with salt and pepper.  Saute for just a few minutes more to get all the flavors melded.

Fish

Cut a small pocket in the halibut steaks and stuff with chanterelle and crab stuffing.  Season the outside of the halibut with salt and pepper.

Cook the halibut in 450 degree oven for about 20 min, or until the halibut flakes well.

Hollandaise Sauce

Cube and saute in butter until moisture is released, they have a lot of it.

Turn this to low heat and whisk the egg yolk, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and water together.   Slowly, extremely slowly, add the egg mixture to the chanterelles, whisk while pouring.  Stir this until thickened they remove from heat but keep on stove to keep warm until serving.

Pour over the cooked halibut and sink your teeth into a bite of heaven.

Black Bean and Steak Chili

 

This is a quick and delicious spin on a classic.  Plus it allows a lot of freedom to play with flavors.

 

Servings: 4-6

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Ingredients

1 lb lean steak (cut in small strips)

1 small sweet onion

1 can sundried (look for them in the Italian aisle)

1/4 cup good salsa
2 gloves diced garlic

2 cans black beans

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Pepper

1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper

2 Tbsp Chili powder

Olive oil

Sour Cream

Cheese

Avocado

This is top blade steak

Dice and onion and saute in olive oil until softened.  Add garlic, cayenne, and chili powder and saute until the garlic is sweating.  Coat the steak strips with salt and pepper and add to pan.  Cook until browned on all sides.

Add sundried tomatoes and salsa.

Let cook for a few minutes then add black beans and cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Serve with avocado, sour cream and cheese.  Enjoy…

Popeye’s Frittata

 

This little recipe is great for a low carb high veggie diet as it allows you to load up on the great green stuff early in the morning.  Eggs and spinach are awesome together in many forms, usually called Florentine in your local restaurants.

Servings: 3

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • Half dozen small mushrooms (or one larger one)
  • 3 cups spinach (more or less as needed)
  • 6 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • Feta cheese
  • Salt and pepper

 

 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Dice and saute some mushrooms in butter with a little salt and pepper to taste.  Use a frying pan that has no plastic on it or get a frittata maker.

 

 

When the mushrooms are softened add heaping amounts of spinach.  Don’t worry it will cook down.

My mason jar whisk

While the spinach is cooking add eggs, salt, and pepper to some milk  (I used mini nubian goat milk because my awesome wife milks our goats for us) and whisk it until it becomes a shiny yellow.  A little trick is add the milk and egg to a mason jar and shake it like a Polaroid picture, actually just shake it for about a minute to incorporate as much air as possible.  The air is what makes a good frittata so don’t skimp on this.

After whisking add feta to the egg mixture and stir it in.  This mixture goes right on top of the mushroom and spinach.  Stir it quickly and put it in the oven.  Bake until the eggs set, usually about 15 min.  Remove and add a little feta on top and let it melt a little.

The air that is incorporated during the whisking (shaking) process is trapped by the egg proteins as they unfold and link together during cooking.  This is what makes them fluffy.  The links get stronger the longer they are cooked so over cooking will cause rubbery eggs, yuck.

 

 

Juevos Dancheros

 

Big ameraucana egg

So when my wife and I got married five and a half years ago we moved to a house on a little over an acre.  There we had chickens, goats, sheep, rabbits, horses, dogs and even a dairy cow (not all at once).  We may have gotten carried away with the chickens, I blame my wife as she loves animals and chickens are one of her favorite.   Somehow we ended up with about 40 hens.  We were getting almost 3 dozen eggs a day in the summer so we ate a lot of farm eggs, which by the way are one million times better than store bought eggs, and what goes better with eggs than pancakes and maple syrup?  Nothing, anybody who tells you different is lying to you or has lost all their taste buds in a freak Ghost Pepper accident.

But alas man cannot live by pancakes alone, so I had to come up with some more uses for the delicious eggs we got.  So for your drooling pleasure I present to you Breakfast.

Juevos Dancheros

Spending a good portion of my youth in South Texas I learned to appreciate Mexican flavors, particularly in breakfast.  Juevos Rancheros where my favorite.  So here is my little and simple spin on a classic.

First i dice a sweet onion and a pepper of your choice (bell, anaheim, jalepeno, or for the deranged carolina reaper) then I saute them in some butter until they are soft.  Now comes the hard part so pay attention, take your favorite salsa and open it and add about 1 cup to the onions.  I usually use a can of Rotel but I have used the Costco Salsa, fresh salsa from our farmers market, and a pile of others.  Just make sure it’s good salsa, I trust you on that.


Once the salsa begins boiling crack your eggs directly in to it.  I usually use up to seven eggs in 1 cup of salsa (if your salsa is really thick then you should thin it with a little water).  Season the cracked eggs with salt and pepper to taste and cover the frying pan with a lid cook over medium heat until the eggs “white over” for over easy, add a few minutes for over medium or over well.

Eggs “whited over”

Open the lid and add some of your favorite Mexican cheese or just plain old cheddar if you forgot to get Mexican cheese.  Curse you forgetfulness.  Cover again and let the cheese melt.  Serve with guacamole, sour cream, and some tortillas or chips.  Buen Provecho…

 

Recipe

  • 1 small sweet onion diced
  • 1 tablespoon butter (olive oil can be used)
  • 1 pepper (bell or Jalapeno are my choice)
  • 1 cup of good salsa (Rotel is what I use)
  • 6 eggs (farm ones if possible)
  • shredded cheese
  • Guacamole
  • Sour cream
  • Salt and pepper

PS I sometimes add bacon, mushrooms, sausage, chorizo, or really anything you want in the mix before adding the eggs, you can’t go wrong.

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