Bitoks d’Agneau
Not sure if you noticed, but there is another recipe that is the same but made with capers. What’s HILARIOUS to me is that the recipe is ENTIRELY different. I guess if you can’t have capers, then FUCK IT…we’re changing everything! ha! Classic Susan Cummings ;)
Bitoks d'Agneau
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
- 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon butter
- 1/3 cups fresh bread crumbs
- 3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons finely chopped dill or parsley
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
- 1/4 pound mushrooms, quartered or sliced
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Place lamb in mixing bowl.
- Heat 1 teaspoon butter in skillet and add onion. Cook, stirring until wilted. Add onion to lamb.
- Add the bread crumbs, 3 tablespoons dill, one egg, salt and pepper, to taste. Blend well and divide into 8 portions.
- Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet and cook lamb patties, 3 or 4 minutes per side.
- Remove patties and wipe out skillet. Add remaining 1 tablespoon butter and mushrooms. Cook until lightly browned. Add shallots and wine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid evaporates almost entirely. Add the cream. Cook about 5 minutes and add remaining dill.
- Serve patties with sauce on top.
Notes:
Bitoks d’Agneau aux Capres
One of the few dishes my mom cooked growing up that I liked. Shhhh…don’t tell her!
Bitoks d'Agneau aux Capres
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
- 1 teaspoon canola oil
- 1 cup finely chopped onions
- 1/2 cup firm bread crumbs
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
- 4 tablespoons finely chopped dill
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 cups sour cream
- 3+ tablespoons drained capers
Instructions
- Put meat into mixing bowl and set aside.
- Heat oil in small skillet and add 1/2 onion & garlic. Cook until onion is wilted. Let cool.
- Add onion mixture to meat. Add bread crumbs, egg, parsley, 2 tablespoons of chopped dill, salt & pepper.
- Shape mixture into balls about 2 inches in diameter, about 16 balls. Flatten slightly.
- Heat 2 tablespoons butter in 1-2 skillets. Add patties and cook 5 minutes. Flip patties and cook 5 minutes longer or until desired doneness.
- Transfer patties to warm platter and pour fat from skillet. Add remaining onion and cook, stirring til wilted. Add paprika and thyme and stir.
- Stir in wine. When it boils, add broth and cook down to about 1/2 cup. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Add salt & pepper, to taste. Return to heat and heat gently without boiling.
- Reheat, stirring frequently. Add the capers.
- Pour the sauce over lamb patties and sprinkle with remaining dill. Serve over noodles (with salt, butter, nutmeg, pepper).
Notes:
Cassoulet
This dish is CRAZY. Our instructor at the cooking school, Chef David Moeller, made this for us one day during class. As he described it, I thought to myself, I’m just going to half to fake it. I’ll take a bite, pretend I like it, and be done. Well it was DELICIOUS. It felt like he put every animal that ever existed in that pot. This is one of those dishes that the poor country folk in Europe used to make with just whatever leftovers they had.
Recently, I saw Cassoulet on the menu at a local French restaurant and was so excited to try it. It was…pas bien. I’ll stick with this version.
Cassoulet
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound bacon, cooked and fat reserved
- 1 pound smoked pork tenderloin or ham, cubed
- 2 duck legs, cooked confit
- 1/2 pound andouille sausage
- 1/4 pound mirepoix, small dice
- 2 cans cannellini beans, drained
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 4 cloves of roasted garlic
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 teaspoon sage
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- Lamb loin, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Using a cast iron Dutch oven, sauté mirepoix in bacon fat, until sweaty, not browned.
- Add in the beans, cooked bacon and incorporate.
- Add in the ham, sausage, and the chicken stock to moisten.
- Add in the herbs and roasted garlic.
- Place the duck on top.
- Sprinkle over the bread crumbs and place into oven until bubbly and hot.
Notes
Should NOT be soupy. Don’t over stir!
Duck confit- submerge legs/thighs in duck fat (oil will work) in a crockpot and cook on low for hours.
Roasting garlic- peel garlic, toss in a little oil, wrap in foil and then roast in oven.
Lamb loins- Cube the meat, sear it, toss it in with ham and sausage.
Ceviche Mariela
Mariela cleans our house and is one of my favorite people. We like to trade gifts and food and drinks and what-not. One day she said she asked if I liked ceviche. To which I immediately thought of Bruce Willis talking to Cybil Shephard in the TV show Moonlighting when he says, “Do birds ‘bird’? Do bees ‘be’?” Meaning…OF COURSE! So the next time she came she brought me this GINORMOUS batch of ceviche with a little side dish of tomato sauce. I was like…huh? Try it, she said. That’s how they do it in Guatemala. I tried it. I LOVED it. So then I fried up a little batch of concha, which she had never had, and we’re both happier ceviche campers. Gracias, Mariela!
Ceviche Mariela
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. raw shrimp, cut into pieces
- Lime juice
- 4-6 Roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 yellow onion, small diced
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
- 2-3 jalapenos (green, de-seeded), chopped
- 2-3 avocadoes, diced
- 10-15 oz. tomato sauce, to taste
- Salt, to taste
- Tortilla chips or concha
Instructions
- In large bowl, add shrimp pieces and cover with lime juice. Stir and let marinade in fridge until shrimp are pink, about 45 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, onion, cilantro, jalapenos, and avocadoes. Stir to combine.
- Add salt and tomato sauce to taste.
- Serve with tortilla chips or concha.
Notes
Per Mariela: green jalapenos are mild, brownish ones are hot. Additionally, white seeds indicate a mild jalapeno, brownish seeds indicate a hotter pepper.
Hungarian Chicken Paprikash
So we’re in Cancun at the Westin Lagunamar (FAVORITE DESTINATION EVER!!!), half-drunk, floating around in the pool and we start chitchatting with some another couple. Naturally we start talking about how Mark’s grandma was from Hungary and she used to make Paprikash, yada yada yada…and lo and behold, the lady we’re talking to, Tammy, says her husband is Hungarian and so she learned to make Chicken Paprikash and it’s her husband’s favorite meal. At least that’s what I think she said…I tried really hard not to keep thinking of Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally talking in that weird accent to Meg Ryan, “Waiter, there’s too much pepper in my paprikash…”
ANYWAY…I was of course dying to add Tammy’s recipe to my repertoire, but we were drunk and in a swimming pool and I didn’t get out to pee so I certainly wasn’t going to get out to write down a recipe. Tammy says, “Email me. My email is easy to remember…it’s like ‘back of sky’ except with a v, like if you were Hungarian.” So yeah…a week later I emailed her and she sent it to me! Ain’t life grand!?
Hungarian Chicken Paprikash
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 3 pounds boneless chicken thighs, skin-on
- 2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 pint sour cream
- 8 ounces water
- 4 tablespoons flour (or more, to thicken sauce)
- 3 tablespoons Lawry's seasoning salt
- Dumplings/noodles/rice, prepared
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pot, over medium heat. Add chopped onions and cook until translucent (you don't want to brown them, just want them tender.)
- Take OFF the heat and add the paprika. Mix it well.
- Add chicken thighs, in batches, and brown slightly with the onion and paprika mixture. Add more oil in small amounts, if needed, to brown the chicken.
- Add all chicken back to the pot and cover with just enough chicken broth to cover chicken.
- Add seasoning salt. Cover and simmer about 25 min, until chicken is tender.
- While chicken is simmering, mix together the flour, sour cream and water with a hand mixer, until smooth. Set aside.
- When the chicken is done, remove the chicken pieces and slowly add the sour cream to the paprika/onion broth, stirring constantly.
- Place chicken pieces on top of dumplings or rice, and top with Paprika Cream sauce.
Notes
Now if I’m being totally honest…this dish is…OKAY. You gotta get genuine Hungarian Sweet Paprika (not SMOKED paprika like I would have done). But yeah…it’s pretty bland, so don’t be chintzy with the salt and pepper.
Mojo Pork Tenderloin with Black Beans & Spanish Rice
Sometimes when I don’t know what to cook, I just start looking through all my recipes because I’m old and I can’t remember what I know how to cook. I always forget about this recipe but I’m always glad when I see it and cook it. Super easy, super yummy, super healthy. The trifecta!
Mojo Pork Tenderloin
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice
- 2 oranges
- 2 limes
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced
- 4 cilantro stalks, finely chopped (leaves & stems)
- 1 1/3 tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 1/2 lbs. pork tenderloin
- 2 cans black beans, drained and thoroughly rinsed
- 4 plum tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- Salt & pepper
Instructions
- Boil rice in salted water over high heat (like pasta), stirring occasionally, 22 minutes, or until just tender. Drain rice in a fine-mesh sieve; transfer to a bowl, and cover to keep warm. Reserve saucepan for late cooking.
- Finely grate 2 tsp orange zest, then squeeze 2/3 cup orange juice into small bowl.
- Finely grate 2 tsp lime zest, then cut lime into wedges and squeeze 2 T lime juice into a small bowl. Save remaining wedges for serving.
- In a medium bowl, stir to combine cilantro, lime zest and juice, orange zest and 6 T of the orange juice, olive oil, vinegar, cumin and 2 tsp of the minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
- Pierce the pork tenderloin all over with a fork and then place in the bowl, turning to coat, to marinate for 5 minutes.
- Pat pork dry, reserving marinade. Heat 1 T oil in a medium, ovenproof skillet over medium-high. Cook pork until browned, 2-3 minutes per side. Remove skillet from heat; pour in reserved marinade and 1/4 cup water. Cover loosely with foil; roast on top rack until pork reaches an internal temp of 145°F, 5-7 minutes.
- Quarter the tomatoes lengthwise, then cut into 1/4-inch pieces. Heat 1 T oil in reserved medium saucepan. Add tomatoes and remaining garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
- Cook, stirring, until tomatoes break down into a chunky sauce, 2-3 minutes. Stir in beans, rice and 5 T. oil; cook until warmed through, 1-2 minutes.
- Thinly slice pork. Stir remaining orange juice into skillet to make a pan sauce. Transfer pork and rice and beans to plates. Spoon pan sauce over pork and serve lime wedges alongside to squeeze over rice.
Notes:
Peruvian Chicken with Green Sauce
This might be my favorite meal EVER. I’m not kidding. I know the ingredients list can look overwhelming but it’s not that serious, I promise you. Most of it is spices and it comes together quick. The chicken is on point and the green sauce is other-worldly. You’ll want to put it on everything…the chicken, the potatoes, your fingers. You’ll want to drink it with a straw and take a bath in it. I’m not kidding. For that reason, make a double-batch or you’ll be PISSED.
Peruvian Chicken with Green Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, quartered (or 2 breast pieces and 4 leg pieces, bone-in, skin on)
- Juice of 2 limes
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon chili powder or sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 pound fingerling potatoes
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 whole jalapeno, roughly chopped (ribs and seeds included)
- 1 medium clove garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 cup packed cilantro
- Juice from 1/2 lime
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons grated cotija cheese (can substitute parmesan)
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine lime juice, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, garlic, sugar, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, and oregano in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Pour marinade over chicken in a baking dish or large zip-lock bag. Using your finger, loosen the skin from the chicken pieces and spoon additional marinade under the skin. Marinate chicken for at least 6 hours, and up to 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Roast on middle rack on foil or parchment-lined baking sheet for 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, slice potatoes lengthwise.
- Toss potatoes in large bowl with oil, salt and pepper.
- Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Roast for 25 minutes on bottom 3rd of the oven, stirring potatoes once during roasting process.
- Serve chicken and potatoes accompanied by Peruvian green sauce.
- I used on 1/2 jalapeno to cut down on the spice even though Mark Watanabe will make fun of me and put 5 jalapenos, a ghost pepper, that fucking red pepper thing that is in Chinese food, etc. I can’t do it. The sauce was still AMAZING!!!
Za’atar Chicken Skewers with Mint Yogurt Sauce
It’s harder to pronounce this meal than it is to eat the shit. Just do it.
Za'atar Chicken Skewers with Mint Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients
- 16 chicken tenders
- 16 wooden skewers
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bunch mint
- 1 tablespoon Za'atar
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Working 1 piece at a time, thread the chicken lengthwise onto the skewers. Transfer to a plate.
- Season the assembled chicken skewers with salt, pepper and the Za'atar on both sides.
- In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on medium-high until hot.
- Working in 2 batches, add the chicken skewers. Cook 3 to 5 minutes per side, or until browned and cooked through. Transfer to a serving dish and set aside in a warm place.
- Smash the minced garlic into paste. In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, garlic paste and half of the mint. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with chicken.
Notes: