Best Bacon Chile

Every year in the fall my office has a chile cook-off. Crockpots line the wall of our large conference room, and everyone follows the delicious smells and tastes a dozen different kinds of chile. The three judges, one of whom is the company president, choose the tastiest chile and a runner up. 

I decided to try my luck this year, so Seth and I got to work planning what we hoped would be the winning recipe. We knew we could make a mean chile, but we needed something to really impress the judges. First, we started the chile on Saturday, five days before the cook-off, to really give the flavors time to meld together. Then we decided to add bacon. Everyone loves bacon right? 

Sadly, despite all the rave reviews from my coworkers, my chile was not one of the chosen two. However, I was glad to see that it was one of the fastest disappearing chiles.  If you too would like to experience the joys of bacon chile, here is the recipe for your tasting pleasure.

Bacon Chile

Serves a whole office of coworkers!

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef

1 onion, diced

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp coriander

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp chile powder

3 chipotles in adobo sauce, diced (3 peppers, not three cans!)

2 15 oz. cans diced tomatoes w/ chiles

2 quarts canned tomatoes

3 anaheim chiles, diced

8 slices bacon

1 clove garlic, minced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 can hominy

1 TB flour or cornstarch, optional

What to Do

Begin by browning the ground beef and the onion in the largest pot you have. Season with spices, salt and pepper. Feel free to use more or less spices depending on what you like, I didn't actually measure mine. 

When beef is mostly cooked and onions are tender, add the diced chipotle peppers along with all the cans of tomato. Make sure to include any liquid in the cans. Add the diced anaheim chile peppers.

In a separate fry pan, fry up the bacon until crispy, then dice. Add to the chile pot. 

Dice and add the garlic and bell pepper. Add the can of hominy. 

Let cook on the stove for several hours on low. If it is too thick, add some more water. If it isn't thick enough, add a TB or so of flour or cornstarch to thicken it up. 

It tastes great to eat the same day you cook it, but the longer it sits, (within reason, of course!) the tastier it gets. 

Happy Thanksgiving! Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Seth's family came over to our house for Thanksgiving yesterday. We were in charge of making dessert and potatoes, so we made both pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake bars (I'll be posting the recipe for those later). Despite all assertions that no one wanted to take any leftovers home with them, as soon as the pumpkin pie was brought out, my brother-in-law decided that he was going to take some of that home with him.
I was really relieved to hear this because a.) I'd never made pumpkin pie before, and b.) Seth had picked a random recipe from online and we hadn't even really followed it completely. So when we served the pie I had absolutely no idea what it was going to taste like. Luckily it was a big hit and everyone asked for the recipe.

Pumpkin Pie

Makes 1 9-inch pie. 

Pie recipe adapted from Simply Recipes, crust recipe from Penzey's Spice catalog. 

Ingredients

Pie Crust:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup canola oil

3 TB milk

Pie Filling:

2 cups pumpkin puree (we roasted our own pumpkin, but you could use canned as well)

1 1/2 cups half and half

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs plus one egg yolk

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp cardamom

What to do

Preheat the oven to 350. 

Place all the ingredients for the pie crust into a 9" pie pan. Mix with a fork until blended and then pat into the pan with your fingers. Push it up the sides of the pie pan and try to ensure it's a uniform thickness throughout the whole crust. 

Combine ingredients for the pie filling in a large bowl in the order listed. Mix well. If the pumpkin seems to clumpy you can throw it in the blender for a minute.

Pour the pie filling into the unbaked pie crust. Depending on how deep your pie pan is, you may have a little more than will fit in the crust. I used more of a 'deep dish' pie pan, and it barely fit!

Place in the preheated oven and bake until the filling is set. I suggest checking it after 40 minutes, and then every 10 minutes after that. Ours took about an hour and 20 minutes, but depending on your oven and the thickness of your pie, it might not take as long. 

Remove from oven and let cool. Serve with whipped cream and ice cream!

Linking up with Jam Hands and Future Expat.

Easy Homemade Pasta, Two Ways

Pasta has always been a last minute dinner for me. I grab a box of penne, a jar of sauce, maybe some meat, and I can have food on the table in 20 minutes. This past weekend, however, Seth and I broke out the pasta maker we got for our wedding and made our own homemade fettuccine. And I'm not sure I ever want to go back to boxed pasta again. Homemade pasta has so much more flavor, and it's really fun to make!

Aside from making the pasta from scratch, we made two kinds of sauces. The first was a basic marinara and the second was a Roman-style chicken sauce. All of the recipes we got from Giada de Laurentiis' cookbook Everyday Pasta. I don't use cookbooks very often, but I think I'll be using this one more frequently in the future.

We started out making the fettuccine. It's a really simple recipe, but just a little flour, eggs, salt, and olive oil is all you need! Once we mixed the dough up we started rolling it out into sheets with our pasta maker.

If you do this at home you will want to read the specific instructions for your pasta maker, but we had to roll the pasta through the machine several times, decreasing the thickness each time. We settled on the 2 setting on our machine as the perfect thickness, but depending on your machine there might be different measurements.

Once the sheets dried a little we ran them through the cutting portion of our pasta maker. 

 MMMM pasta.

And that was it, until we were ready to cook it that is. The great thing about fresh pasta is that it only takes about two minutes to cook. We piled it on a plate and waited until right before dinner time.

Then it was sauce time. The marinara sauce really needs to cook for about an hour in order to thicken up and have all of the flavors meld together. What I really liked about this sauce was that it was full of vegetables like carrots and celery, but you didn't taste it. It's great for picky husbands that don't always like to eat their veggies. 

We made a huge batch, and froze half of it. I love leftovers. 

Then I made the Roman-style fettuccine with chicken. I was getting a little tired of cooking at this point but it was all worth it! This was a pretty simple dish to throw together. Cook some chicken, shred it, and then mix it up with a few other ingredients and serve over pasta. Seth and I both loved this dish and will definitely make it again. It would be a great pasta dish to make for company. 

And now for the best part - the recipes! 

Homemade Fettuccine

Makes 1 1/2 pounds of pasta

Ingredients

3 cups flour 

4 large eggs

1 TB kosher salt

1 TB olive oil

What to Do:

You don't have to use a food processor for this, but if you have one it makes it pretty easy. Otherwise, just mix it by hand.

Beat the eggs, olive oil and salt in a small bowl. Mix with the flour in either the food processor or mixing bowl. Pulse the mixture until everything is evenly mixed and clumpy. It should hold together if you squeeze it. 

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and kneed it. The dough will be very tough and difficult to manipulate, but that's ok. Cover and let rest for about 30 minutes. This will keep the pasta from getting too tough. 

At this point you can roll and cut using your pasta maker (or by hand, if you have a rolling pin and want a good arm workout!).  When you are ready to cook, boil a large pot of salted water and then place the pasta in it. Cook for about two minutes, or until the pasta is al dente.

Marinara Sauce

Makes 2 quarts

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil

2 small onions, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 celery stalks, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

2- 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes

2 dried bay leaves

handful fresh basil (optional)

What to do

In a large pot, heat the oil on medium heat. Cook onions and garlic for about 10 minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables, along with the salt and pepper. When everything is tender, add the canned tomatoes, bay leaves, and basil. Let it simmer for at least an hour, or until it is your desired thickness. Remove the bay leaves and add extra salt and pepper to taste. 

Roman Style Fettuccine with Chicken

4 servings

Ingredients

1/8 cup olive oil

3 chicken breasts

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced

2 oz prosciutto, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1- 14.5 oz can fire roasted tomatoes

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1/2 TB oregano

1/2 TB thyme

1/4 cup water or chicken stock

1 TB capers

chopped fresh parsley 

What to do

Heat the oil in a saucepan, and cook the chicken with salt and pepper until browned on both sides. Remove and set aside. 

Add bell peppers and prosciutto and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add garlic, tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, thyme and oregano. Cook and stir for a few minutes, then add water or chicken stock and place the chicken breasts back in the pan. Cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink. 

Remove and shred the chicken, then stir back in. Add capers and parsley.

Serve over fresh fettuccine and top with Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Linking up with Future Expat for the required ingredient link party! 

Indian Butter Chicken

Growing up, I never ate Indian food. Never ate curry, tikka masala, paneer, dosa, or tandoori. It just wasn't something my family ever cooked, nor was it very prevalent in the city where I grew up.

When I moved to the DFW area for college, however, my boyfriend (now husband) introduced me to the wonders of Indian food. There were many cheap and delicious restaurants in the area surrounding our school. After graduating, I got a job in the IT department of a nearby company, where many of my coworkers are Indian. They have introduced me to many more delicious varieties of their native cuisine.

Despite the plethora of authentic Indian food surrounding me, I still like to cook my own. Mainly because it is cheaper than eating out, but also because I can control the spice level in the food! One of my coworkers shared their lunch with me the other day. I asked them if it was spicy, and they said no, it's very mild. After eating it though, I thought I might start breathing fire. So when I make my own, I can give it a little kick, but not overwhelm myself with heat.

Last night I made some Indian butter chicken (aka chicken makhani). It was a recipe I'd pinned months ago and never got around to making. (You can find the original here). Now that I've made it, I'm sorry that I waited so long. I think this is going to be a new regular in my kitchen. I made a few changes, of course, based on what I had on hand and some suggestions I read in the comments, but overall I followed the recipe.

So without further ado.... I present my version of Butter Chicken. Make it this week- it's that good!

Indian Butter Chicken

Makes 6 servings

For Sauce:

1 TB olive oil

2 shallots, diced (The original recipe called for them and I had these on hand but you could probably just use onions instead)

1/2 onion, diced

5 TB butter

4 tsp lemon juice

2 TB garlic paste (I found this at the Indian grocery store, but you could just use a couple of cloves of fresh garlic instead)

1 TB fresh grated ginger

2 tsp garam masala (found in spice aisle)

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

2 bay leaves

2/3 cup PLAIN greek yogurt

2 cup dairy liquid of choice (I used whey, which I had leftover from making cheese. The original recipe called for half and half. I think it would be delicious with coconut milk as well)

1 can tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

For Chicken:

1 1/2 - 2 lbs cubed chicken (breasts or thighs will work)

2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions:

Start by heating some olive oil in a large skillet or saucepan on medium high heat. Cook the onions and shallots until they start to become tender. Then mix in the butter, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, and other spices. Next add the can of tomato paste and mix everything well. It will seem like it needs some liquid but don't worry, that part is coming! After about two minutes stir in your milk product of choice and the yogurt. Mix it up well until there are no big chunks of yogurt or tomato paste and it has a creamy consistency. Now turn the heat down and let it simmer.

While it's simmering, start cooking the diced chicken. Season with salt, pepper, garam masala and cayenne and cook on the stove on medium heat. When the chicken is cooked, transfer to the sauce. Make sure you leave any juices behind, otherwise they will make your sauce too watery. Let it simmer for a few more minutes on the stove before serving. 

I served with some white rice, it would also be delicious with some fresh naan bread. I hope you enjoy! 

Tortillas Españolas

Tonight I made tortillas for dinner. Just not the Mexican kind.

There's another kind of tortilla? You say.

Yes, there is. And it is the tastiest kind. In Spain, if you order a tortilla at a restaurant, you will not be served a very flat piece of bread. You would be served a slice of something akin to a potato and egg quiche, but without the pie crust. I discovered these while visiting Spain, and over the course of the two months I spent there, I tried many varieties of this Spanish staple. The standard tortillas with potatoes, onions, and egg were always delicious, but I also had ones with jamón and others that were made with zucchini instead of potato. And I was always excited when they were served with a slice of manchego cheese on top.

Back in America, I tried to make them myself, but I had alot of trouble for a while. In Spain, they have somehow mastered the art of flipping a potato and egg mixture like a pancake. Every time I tried it though, I ended up with a scrambled eggs and potato mixture. Tasty, but not quite what I was going for.

Finally, I had a revelation while watching Seth cook a frittata. What if I didn't flip the tortilla to cook the other side, but put it under the broiler instead? While not exactly the traditional Spanish method, it yields very similar results. And it's so much easier and foolproof. (Well, almost. Just don't be like me and accidentally stick the skillet under the broiler with a rubber grip still on the handle. Your house will smell like burning plastic for hours.)

Tortilla Española (Spanish Tortilla)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 large potatoes, cubed (or frozen cubed potatoes)

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

4 eggs

1 tsp paprika

salt and pepper

manchego cheese (optional)

Instructions:

Start by cooking the potatoes, onions, and garlic in a skillet over medium heat. You will need to add a little oil or butter in, and stir them frequently so they don't stick to the bottom of the pan. When the potatoes are almost completely cooked through, remove from the heat.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk four eggs with paprika, salt, and pepper. Now you can either pour this into the pan with the potatoes, or pour the potatoes into the bowl. Either way, mix everything up together. Put the skillet with the egg/potato mixture back on the stove on medium/low heat. Cook for 5-10 minutes, or until the bottom starts to brown. You can check this by sliding a spatula down the side and lifting up the edge slightly. 

When the bottom seems to be well cooked, put the skillet into the oven (make sure you are using an oven-safe skillet!). Turn the broiler on high for 5 minutes. The tortilla should be a nice golden brown color on top when you take it out.

Slice into wedges and serve. Top with manchego cheese if you want them to be especially delicious.