Let’s enjoy
A Trip To The Spice Cabinet
Cooking is emotion, cooking is raw emotion and through food I am able to express myself to others. Food is a further extension of my feelings. To have found my passion at such a young age is a blessing; to me food is a release. I can lose myself in food and just focus on what’s in front of me, the sounds of vegetables hitting a hot pan with the aroma of olive oil hanging in the air. Fresh cracked pepper and a trip to the spice cabinet, the soft grinding of the mortar and pestle. By now the grill is getting hot and the smell of fresh charcoal is creeping it’s way into the house. My pup Yam’s peeking his head around the corner wondering what that smell is. He always knows to hang around the kitchen when dad’s cooking. These are the moments I live for where all the noise of everyday life fades away and I’m left with a familiar tone. The sounds of the kitchen, like music to my ears. My dream is to help people EnjoyTheYum all over the world, can you dig it?
RECIPE TIME
Dad’s Spring Time Chili Recipe
1 lb Ground Chuck (Can Substitute Turkey Burger or Just Throw Veggies in There if You Don’t Get Down With Meat)
2 Small Onions
1 Jalapeño
1 Serrano
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
1 Clove Garlic
1 Fosters Beer (Stouts and Lagers Work Best)
1 Can Dark Kidney Beans
1 28 oz Can of Crushed Roma Tomatoes
1 tbls Tomato Paste
6 tbls Avocado Oil
5 tbls Cumin
4 tbls New Mexican chili powder
3 tbls Smoked Paprika
3 tbls Tomato Powder
Salt to Taste, Preferably Smoked Salt
Crystal Tobacco All Up in There
Grated Cheddar Cheese
Tostitos Frito Scoops (Major Key)
Sour cream (Major Key)
GoOd morning
If you’re anything like me, you have trouble eating when you wake up. People that can just wake up and eat weird me out. Sometimes it needs to happen out of necessity, maybe you have big plans for the day and just need energy. I’ve found that smoothies are a great way to fuel my body with the right nutrients and energy I need in the morning to start my day off. This recipe is super easy and will have you hitting all the right spots.
1 Banana
6 oz Frozen Blueberry
6 oz Frozen Blackberry
6 oz Frozen Strawberry
6 oz Frozen Raspberry
1/2 Cup Orange Juice
1/2 Cup Almond Milk
clean that fridge
Once a month I like to clean out my fridge, reorganize and get rid of stuff that’s just been sitting. Now, just because your produce may not be as fresh the day you bought it doesn’t mean it needs to end up in the trash. Wasting food is a pet peeve of mine and this recipe is a great way to make use of all these scraps that seem doomed for the dump. Super easy and extremely delicious, as my dad would say “A Real Gut Sticker”.
3 lb Beef Short Rib
1 Onion
2 Tomato
2 Stalk Celery
1 Small Piece of Ginger
1 Head Garlic
1 Carrot
2 Bell Pepper
1 Spring Parsley
6 Mushroom
1 tbl Spoon Tomato paste
1 Bottle Red Wine
2 qt Beef stock
Salt to Taste
Pepper to Taste
1 Bay Leaf
1 Spring Rosemary
Avocado Oil
1 Loaf French Bread
“Cutting food waste is a delicious way of saving money, helping to feed the world and protect the plant”
- Tristan Stuart
Vegan Cauliflower Steak
A common misconception about vegan food is that it’s bland and unappealing but I’m here to prove you wrong. I believe it to be extremely important to know what your diet consists of. Know what you are putting in your body. The older I get the more aware I am of where my food is coming from and how it affects my energy levels, mood and overall health. Hopefully this recipe will help bridge the gap between vegan and flavor.
2 Heads white cauliflower
Chimichurri (recipe attached)
2 bunches parsley
2 bunches cilantro
2 jalapeños
4 oz lime juice
6 cloves garlic
Pickled Red Cabbage (recipe attached)
1 head red cabbage
1 pt red wine vinegar
1 pt brown sugar
1/4 cup beet juice
Olive salad (recipe attached)
2 cups halved and pitted kalamata olives
1 lemon segmented and juiced
1 lime segmented and juiced
1 orange segmented and juiced
3 sliced kumquats (optional)
2 tbls confit garlic
2 tbls confit fennel
1 bunch mint; diced
1 bunch basil; diced
3 oz Marcona almond crushed
Maldonado salt to taste
1 Grapefruit segmented and roasted
Curry toasted pumpkin seeds
Sausage Stuffing
1 lb Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage
2 Stalks Celery
1 Whole Onion
1 lb Mushroom
One Long Loaf French Bread 🥖
2 Sticks Butter
1 qt chicken stock
*** Arnold or Pepperidge farm stuffing cubes*** Major Key Not the Stove Top Brand
Salt to Taste
Pepper to Taste
Baking Tin Big Size
First let’s get our chicken stock in a small pot and crack up the heat. We want to reduce this by half. Next let’s start prepping our vegetables. Medium dice all your veggies and place in large mixing bowl. Next take your French loaf and dice it up into cubes, place in mixing bowl. Now let’s cook off that sausage and toss it in the bowl. I like to throw fresh sage in while cooking the sausage to add some flavor depth. Add your stuffing cubes, you can find these at most grocery stores. I personally like the pepperidge farm stuffing cubes. Mix everything together and place in the baking tin. Small dice two sticks of butter and scatter on top. Take your chicken stock you’ve reduced by half and pour around your stuffing. You want the stuffing to be moist but not wet. Season stuffing with salt and pepper to taste. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 35 min uncovered. Leftovers won’t last long!
Growing up my dad worked a lot of night shifts and all that. That being said I had to kinda fend for myself, and ya boy needed to eat. One of the few things my dad and I had in common is our love for good food. My dad always made sure I ate good and he instilled the fundamental interest in food that has blossomed into the passion it is today. I would like to share my dad’s spring time chili recipe so you can EnjoyTheYum wherever you may be.
So first we’re going to take two sauce pots and get them on low heat while we start prepping this bomb ass chili. Then we’re going to take 3 tbls spoon of avocado oil and get it going on that low to medium heat. You never want your pan to be smoking with oil, that means your oil is burnt and can throw off the whole dish. Take your garlic, jalapeño and Serrano and sweat it in that oil basically just releasing the aroma of the ingredients but not cooking them too fast and burning it. This takes about 2 min, keep stirring with a wooden spoon no plastic throw a nice pinch of salt in. Now it’s time to throw in your onion and bell pepper and kick up the heat, throw in another two nice pinch’s of salt and pepper and caramelize the onions, continuously stirring. It’s ok if some of the onions kinda stick to the bottom, you don’t want to burn it but a lil sticky sticky no biggie. Once your onions have nice color stir in that tbls of tomato paste and cook for another min. Now crack that ice cold beer take a sip, always take a sip gotta make sure it’s good and pour that bad boy in there, this is essentially deglazing the pan and getting all that sticky flavory goodness that you want of the bottom of the pan. Your going to want to reduce the beer by about half on medium heat, it should thicken up. This is important, you don’t want a watery chili it should have some body. While you are reducing the beer brown your meat, or if your not using meat just throw all your veggies in when you throw in the onion and bell pepper and salt a lil heavier. It’s always good to marinate your meat a day in advance. I have my EnjoyTheFlavor rub at the house but you can use whatever spices you want like garlic powder, paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, tomato powder, chili powder. Once your beer is reduced throw in your meat, crushed tomatoes, kidney beans and all your spices. 3- 4 nice pinch’s of salt and let it simmer for 25 min. Ladle some fo that chili goodness in your bowl, throw some cheese all up in there, slap a plop of sour cream and drench it in crystal hot sauce. Now it’s time to enjoytheyum, if you bout that life you can just use tostitos scoops as your spoon.
You can use any kind of fruit you want, I personally like berries. If you’re feeling frisky throw a scoop of cashew butter in there, blend and EnjoyTheYum. Any leftover smoothie pop in the freezer and you can EnjoyTheYum the next day.
This recipe works best with a large cast iron skillet and pressure cooker. I have an Instant Pot at home and I recommend one for every household. So before I start cooking I like to have everything prepped up and organized so your kitchen doesn’t look like a war zone afterwards. Rough chop all your veggies and combine into a bowl and set to the side. Get your cast iron skillet on low heat and just let it heat up, always want a hot pan to start. Now we’re going to take our short ribs and season with salt generously, you want to coat all sides so you get a nice crust when we go to braise the short rib. Now it’s time to kick your cast iron up to medium heat and put some oil in the pan, I personally like to use avocado oil, it has a higher burning point so you’re less likely to burn your oil and I just like avocados. You never want your oil smoking. Now it’s time to place your short ribs in the pan and get a nice crust on all sides. You’re looking for a nice golden brown crust and I recommend opening a few windows it might get a lil Smokey in the house but that’s perfectly fine. Once you have gotten nice color on all sides of the short rib place them in your instant pot and season with pepper, be generous. You don’t want to season with pepper before you get color on the short ribs because pepper has a lower burning point than salt and it will end up burning the short rib instead of that nice golden brown color we want. Now as soon as you take your short ribs out throw all those veggies you set to the side in the pan. There should be some excess salt at the bottom of the pan and that’s good it will season your veggies. Very important that you keep an eye on these veggies you want them to cook without burning. Once your veggies are cooked down add your tbls of tomato paste and cook for another two minutes, this is going to help give your stew body. After 2 minutes it’s time to deglaze with that bottle of red wine, this will pick up all those flavors stuck to the bottom of the pan. Remember always taste the wine because... well you know. Once your wine has reduced by half it should thicken up, in the kitchen we call this Au Sec which is reducing a liquid to a syrupy consistency. Now it’s time to add your bay leaf, Rosemary and beef stock. Let this simmer for about 5 min and pour into the instant pot on top of short ribs. Pressure cook for one hour on low heat and that meat should be falling off the bone baby! Rip you off a piece of French bread, grab a bowl and EnjoyTheYum! Guaranteed to go back for seconds.
So this is a little more in depth of a recipe than the previous ones listed. I’m gonna break it down into 4 parts, but I promise this dish is worth all the work. First let’s make a chimichurri, keep it simple and just stick to fresh ingredients treated with care. I seriously advise investing in a food processor, it saves so much time whipping together marinades, rubs, etc. I personally like to roast my jalapeño, this can done on grill or with a torch. Place the parsley, cilantro, garlic and jalapeño in food processor and purée together. Once you’ve reached a smooth consistency add lime juice and salt to flavor. Place this is in the fridge and let it chill. Next let’s get our pickled cabbage working. Take your head of red cabbage and quarter it. Take those quarters and cut them into thin slices, in the kitchen we call this julienne. Get a large sauté pan going on high heat, the pan should big enough where most of the cabbage is spread even. We’re looking for a crisp body. You don’t want it piled up because this will essentially steam the cabbage instead of sautéing it. Once the pan is hot add your oil and start sautéing the cabbage. At this point, season with salt. After the cabbage has a nice brown color add your brown sugar and caramelize. This should take about two minutes, you don’t want to burn the sugar so stir pan continuously. Once caramelized, add red wine vinegar and beet juice and cook this to au sec (remember that syrupy consistency I was talking about). After most of the liquid has cooked off even, spread the cabbage on a tray and place in the fridge to cool.
Now let’s get started on our delicious olive salad! Before I dive into how to prepare this olive salad, here’s little background on the word confit, which is slowing cooking anything in fat. Traditionally people would preserve meats by salting, cooking and storing in fat. So in this case our fat would be olive oil and what we’re trying to preserve is garlic a d fennel. Take two separate pots, fill with a cup of oil each. Set both pots on low and take your fennel and garlic and cut them into small uniform pieces. Place the garlic and fennel in each pot and slowly cook until both are soft. Keep in mind you don’t want much color, you’re not deep frying them just slowly simmering in oil. This process should take about 20 min and your left with two very fragrant oils as well as your cooked fennel and garlic. Place both in the fridge to chill. I recommend finding a mason jar to store the excess in, when you confit anything it has a much longer shelf life. Now for the citrus, for those of you that don’t know what segmenting is, it’s cutting the flesh from the skin of any citrus. To segment, cut into the fruit right next to a membrane. When the blade reaches the center of the fruit, rotate it to peel the segment away from the opposite membrane. Or, simply cut both sides of the segment away from the membrane -- whichever method is easier for you. Repeat to remove all of the segments. You'll be left with the membrane attached to the orange like the open leaves of a book. You can place a small bowl underneath you while doing this to catch all the excess juice that falls out, which we will use to liven up the olive salad. Once you have the lemon, lime and orange segmented, cut them into small bits and place in fridge to chill. Don’t forget about our grapefruit! Instead of slicing these segments keep them whole and char them. This can done on grill or with a torch. You can buy kalamata olives already pitted and save a lot of time. Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and fold in your diced basil and mint.
For our final step let’s take our heads of cauliflower and cut them thick slices keeping the center Intact holding all the cauliflower together. I own a sous vide and I’ve found the best way to prepare this dish is to sous vide the cauliflower in the chimichurri which essentially is steaming the cauliflower in the chimichurri juices cooking the cauliflower without adding color. I know most ppl don’t own a sous vide so you can wrap the cauliflower lathered in chimichurri in aluminum foil and bake until the cauliflower is tender. I’ve also grilled the cauliflower to give it that nice smoky flavor and finished in the oven. While this is cooking, crank your oven up to 400 and toast your pumpkin seeds. Once nice and golden brown take a pinch of curry power and toss with pumpkin seeds. Now it’s time to put all this together! Take a nice spoonful of your chimichurri and spread it on the plate, two hearty scoops of olive salad and a nice bunch of pickled cabbage. Take your cauliflower cut into bite size pieces and place it over your bed of cabbage and olive salad, place your charred grapefruit and finish with pumpkin seeds! One of my favorite vegan dishes, so good you can’t help but EnjoyTheYum!
