Chili

Been a while since I last posted a recipe here. We had been busy with the move to the new house. The hubby is retiring next year and the plan is to retire in San Antonio. We had been busy looking at houses since June. We finally closed on one in September and moved in 3 weeks ago.. and yes we are still very busy trying to get to the new house in order.

We were eating really bad during the move as we had to close down the kitchen. Lotsa of fast food and unhealthy stuff. 

Last week was the first week that we get back to the healthy eating routine... at least for dinner. The hubby had been spoilt with the fast food we had and could not stop eating them. Well, at least we are back to making health dinner. 

We had a cold front came in on Saturday night and the temperature dropped 30 degrees from 92 to 57... gosh its cold for our Texans blood. The first food that came to my mind was Chili. We saw this recipe from Martha Setwart's site and decided to give it a shot as it look easy. And gosh... this recipe is potently good. The use of Chipotle chili pepper with adobo sauce makes a big difference. It blends really good with the beer. and gosh.. its spicy.  This is my new GO TO chili recipe....

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon vegetable oil ( I use coconut oil)
3 medium onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
3 tablespoons chili powder
 2 tablespoons chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 pounds ground beef chuck ( I use 1.2 pound of ground turkey and 1.2 pound of ground beef)
3 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes in juice
1 bottle (12 ounces) mild lager beer ( I use shiner bock)
2 cans (14.5 ounces each) kidney beans, rinsed and drained ( I omitted this)
Shredded cheddar cheese (optional) ( I omitted this)

DIRECTIONS
1. In a Dutch oven or large (5-quart) heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Add onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes.
2.  Add tomato paste, chili powder, chipotles, and cinnamon. Cook, stirring, until mixture has begun to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add beef, and cook, breaking it up with a spoon until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
 3 Add tomatoes with their juice, beer, and beans. Bring to a boil, and reduce to a rapid simmer. Cook over medium heat until chili has thickened slightly and beans are tender, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese, if desired.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

 

We have some weird weather the past week. It was hot and it was cold and wet. It was hot on Wednesday at 80 degree and it changed over night to thunderstorm on Thursday at high of 55 degree. Well.. it is probably not so cold if you come from east or north east. But this is Texas.. anything lower than 70 degree is Brrrrr for us :)

And yes.. it was brrr for us on Thursday. So I decided to make a beef stew to warm our soul. I found this recipe (<= click)  from Simply Recipe and adapted it to the ingredients I have at home. I love this recipe for the simple reason that it is not tomato based. I am not a fan of tomato based stew. The use of beer and beef broth with just 2 tablespoon of tomato base is perfect. The hubby agreed that this is a keeper. We have some leftover on Friday and it seems to taste even better. 

Ingredents ( My adapted version)

• 2 Tbspcoconut oil
• 2 pounds well marbled chuck beef roast, cut into 2-inch piece
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 pint (16 ounces) stout or any dark beer ( I use shiner bock)
• 3 cups beef broth
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2-3 potato and sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
• 3-4 teaspoons dried thyme
• Salt and pepper

Direction
1, Heat the coconut oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Brown the beef in the oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the beef as it browns. Once browned on all sides, transfer the beef pieces into the slow cook

2 Add the onions and celery to the pan in which you just browned the beef. Sauté the onions and celery until they begin to brown at the edges, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and mix well. Cook for a minute or two, then add a little of the Guinness, enough to make it easier for you to scrape up any browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Transfer the celery and onions into the slow cooker.


3 Add the rest of the Guinness, the beef broth, carrots, potato and sweet potato, and thyme to the slow cooker. Add two teaspoons of salt. Cover and cook on "high" for 4 hours, or "low" for 8 hours. When done, add more salt to taste.

~bel~

No Bean Chili

 

Bbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... and what we need is another chili night.  The hubby made this on Saturday from a recipe from Allrecipe. This is an easy recipe but really yummy. We ate it with some hot dog. It made good leftover too. We  have hervos racheous with it today for breakfast....so good.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin 1
 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

( we use a pound of beef and a pound of turkey and doubled the ingredients accordingly)

Direction:
1. Crumble the ground beef into a stock pot or large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion and garlic, and cook stirring frequently until beef is evenly browned. Drain off excess grease. Season with chili powder, oregano, cumin and hot sauce.
3. Stir in the tomatoes and vinegar.
4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 1 hour - or longer if you have time. Stir occasionally to prevent burning on the bottom.

Crockpot Beef Stew

 

I really do not like this picture. It does not do justice to the beef stew. This is probably one of the best recipe for beef stew.. well.. even the hubby who is not a fan of beef stew agreed with me. And of course... it has to be good since I am the creator of this recipe :)

I have been looking at a number of beef stew recipes and most of them contain some ingredients which I do not like.. so I decided to create my own :)

This is really a good recipe for a busy day... a crockpot and 10 minutes of preparation time and Bingo.. dinner is done.

Ingredients:

 2 pounds of stew meat

 3-4 carrot , chopped

3-4 celery, chopped

2 potatoes

1 onion - chopped coursely

2 cup of beef broth

2 cup of red wine

1 table spoon of thyme ( more to taste)

1 table spoon of oregano ( more to taste)

1 small can tomato paste 

1 teaspoon of paparika

3-4 bay leave

Cayenne pepper ( to taste)

Pepper and salt ( to taste)

Direction

1.  Season the stew meat with the spices, salt and pepper for at least 30 minutes

2. Lay the crockpot with the onion , carrot and celery

3. Put in the seasoned stew meat

4. Pour the beef broth and wine into the crockpot, add in the tomato paste ( add in more thyme and oregano to taste) and bay leaves

5. Stir and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours

~enjoy~

Paleo Gumbo (Crockpot)

 

I have been thinking of Gumbo since I saw the pack of Andouille sausage which the hubby bought. So the search begins for a good recipe. Its hard to find a recipe which I like so I decided to create my own using various source. 

 Surprisingly, my creation turn out pretty good. The hubby had two helpings... so it must be good :

Ingredients: 

One and half pound of chicken breast, cut into cube

A pack of Andouille sausage

One green pepper, diced

One onion, chopped

11/2 cup of okra, diced

1 cup of diced tomato with juice

2 cup of chicken stock

1 tablespoon of paparika

1 tablespoon of oregano

1 tablespoon of thyme

1 teaspoon of celery seed

1 teaspoon of cayenne (more or less to taste)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Marinate the chicken with the spices for at least 30 minutes

2. Brown the sausage in a pan with olive oil. 

3. Brown the chicken in the pan after the sausage.

4. Lay the crockpot with onion,pepper, okara. Add in the chicken stock and diced tomato.

5. Add the saugage and chicken. Add in more spices if desired

6. Cook for 7-8 hours on low

~enjoy~

 

Chili and Pizza !

Gosh...I did not realize that my last post was almost 7 months back. Running and working had pretty much left me with no time and energy to cook or bake

Bf and I decided that we should eat more at home for the simple reason that it is healthier ( and of course.. cheaper as well) . Bf was really excited about this new arrangement and immediately pulled out two recipes- chili and pizza !

I did not cook this weekend but he did.

The Chili recipe was from allrecipe.com. It was so simple and yet so good. I could not resist a second helping.


The pizza recipe was from Runner's World Magazine. The recipe gave pizza a new twist by using pesto as base instead of the usual tomato paste. It also uses goat cheese instead of mozzarella. I never realize that pesto and chicken go so well together


Ingredient for Pizza
1. 12 inch whole wheat pizza crust
2. 3/4 cup of pesto
3. 1 cup arugula
4. 8 0z cooked chicken strips
5. 1/3 cup sliced red pepper
6. 2/3 cup of olive ( we omitted this as bf is not a fan of olive)
7. 1.2 cup of basil
8. 4 ounces of crumbled goat cheese
9. Black pepper

Directions:
1. Place the pizza crust on a baking sheet and baked at 400F for 6 mins
2. Remove crust and turn oven to broil
3. Spread the pest on crust.
4. Top with arugula, chicken, red peppers, olives, basil and cheese
5. Season with black pepper and broil for 1 min

~bel~

Miso Soup

The weather has been depressing cold in the last few days. I decided that having cold salad on a cold day is really not appetising...and hence decided to make a soup.

The Japanese Miso Soup seems to be the perfect answer as it is simple and yet nutrious.

Ingredient :

1) Miso Paste with Dashi stock ( You will need to make the dashi separately if you use the normal miso paste)

2) Tofu - 1/2 block. Cut into 1 inch cube (I used the silken)

3) Wakame ( dry sea weed)



Direction:

1) Sock a handful of wakame for 5-10 minutes till hydrated

2) Put to boil 2 cups of water

3) Add 1/2 tablespoon of miso paste ( more if you like it more flavourful)

4) Add the the tofu and wakame

5) Ready to serve when boil

Note: You can add other ingredients such as seafood, eggs, abura-age ( dry bean curd) and other vegetables. I like to add spinach.

~bel~

Shrimp, Chicken and Okra Gumbo

I bought a packet of shrimps last week and did not know what to do with it. Finally decided to do a Shrimp, Chicken and Okra Gumbo. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com but made some amendments to the original recipe. The beauty of this recipe is that it does not use roux. Instead, it used vegetables to create a thick stew. Definitely a healthier version of the traditional gumbo.

Ingredients :

1 pound (about 450g) of shrimps
1 pound *about 450g) of Okra, chopped
2 pieces of chicken breast, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 medium green pepper, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 tablespoon of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 medium onion, diced
3 stalks of green onions (spring onions)
olive oil
old bay seasons to taste
salt and pepper to taste
chili flakes to taste

Direction :
1. Marinate the chicken and shrimps with old bay seasoning, chili flakes, salt and pepper

2. Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add the okra and saute for 15 minutes

3. Add onion and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes

4. Add green bell pepper, celery, tomato and tomato paste. Saute for 10 minutes

5. Add chicken. Saute till cooked. About 4-5 minutes

6. Add water and season to taste. Bring to boil and reduced heat. Simmer for 45 minutes

7. Add shrimps. Simmer for 20 minutes

8. Add green onions ( spring onions). Stir and cover. Serve.


~Bel~