ManCave Test Kitchen

Hot and sweet, tht’s how I like my women and my glazes.  This recipe comes from my good buddy Donnie Durran, whom I had the pleasure of working with in Arizona.  This glaze was a custom recipe he put on venison and slow cooked lamb, which it is truly magical with, but I would steal the leftovers and eat it with just about anything.  It was just sweet enough to get you interested, and just spicy and smoky enough to keep you hooked.   This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups and is shown on a local venison loin.

• 1/2 c. dried cherries
• 1/2 can chipotle peppers
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 fl oz. cafe Petron (or any other tequila)
• 1 tbsp. ground cumin
• 2 tbsp. rough chopped cilantro
• 1/2c. chicken stock

1. So, this one really is easy.  Drop all of your  ingredients into a small suace pot.  Turn the heat up to medium and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
2. While the mixture is still hot, puree everything until it’s smooth.  Cool the mixture down and store it refrigerated until you’re ready to use it.

   

This will stay good for about a month in the refigerator.  Although this is normally a glaze, it can be used like barbecue sauce (seriously, it’s awesome on fries).  I’ve also mixed it with mayonaisse or sour cream to amke a funky new dip. Try playing with this and see how you like it.

Happy Eating,

-The Doctor

I’m starting this one with a disclaimer.  This is by no means a traditional Enchilada sauce, nor is it anything close any crap you’ll find made by nay of the fake Tex-Mex companies that call themselves Mexican food producers.  This is recipe I came up with after traveling around Mexico and sampling a ridiculous amount of food.  When I came back to the US, I developed this sauce to use not just for Enchiladas, but for steaks, chicken, pulled pork, and the soon to be published “Mexican Lasagna”.  You’ll notice there’s not a whole lot of pictures, mostly because, well…it’s that easy.  This will make 1 quart:

• 3 c. chicken stock
• 1 c. tomato sauce
• 1 clove garlic, smashed
• 1 tbsp chile powder
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 3 oz. dried pasilla or guajillo chiles (your choice, guajillo chiles are generally milder)

1.   Straight up, doesn’t get any easier than this.  Crack open your chiles and shake out the seeds and pull the stems.
2. Drop these into a pot with your chicken stock, garlic, cumin and chile powder and steep them on a low heat until they’ve reconstituted.  I usually do about 15-20 minutes.
3. Add you tomato sauce and bring to a low simmer.
4. Transfer everything to a blender and let ‘er rip for about 1 minutes on high.  When You’re done your going to pass it through a strainer like this to get any extra seeds or skin out:

   

I like to hold this in a jar or tupperware container until I’m ready to use it.  Like I said before it’s very versatile and you can pretty much add it to anything, or use it as a sauce for meats.  I like to throw a bit into salsa for an extra kick, or even use it as a starter for making my own chile pepper ketchup (let me know if you want that recipe too).

-Happy Eating,

The Doctor

You’ve all seen that vegetable hanging out in the produce section, you have no idea what it is, but all of the Latinos in the store are picking it up and no one else.  It kinda looks like a turnip, but it’s not.  It’s harder and kinda cucumber-sh.  Well that’s a Jicama.  It’s mild flavored and very refreshing.  A lot of times, it’s eaten raw with some kind of creamy dipping sauce and that’s about it.  Well, not today.  I was lucky enough to get some jalapenos and tomatillos from a local farmer, and decided to whip this up using those same ingredients.  This will give you 1 1/2  quarts.

1 1/2 c. small diced Jicama
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 c olive oil
1 1/2 lbs. tomatillos
3 cloves whole garlic
1 medium white onion cut into quarters
1 bunch cilantro, rough chopped
water as neede
Salt and pepper to taste
3 jalapeno peppers (Optional)

1. If you’re not sure how to peel the jicama, just think of it like a turnip.  Just use your knife like this:

   

2. Now turn on your broiler and start peeling your tomatillos:
3. Lay out the onions, garlic, peppers and tomatillos on a sheet tray and brush them with oil and season them with salt and pepper.  Pop the under the broiler until they look like this:
4. Now here’s the fun part.  Grab your blender while everything is still hot.  Drop the vegetables and cilantro into the blender and pulse about 6- 7 times.  Just enough to break up the ingredients, it’s not supposed to be smooth.
5. Drop the mixture into a bowl and add your lime juice, olive oil and jicama.  Season it again if you like and if it’s but too thick for you, add some water.  I like it thick so I really only added a couple splashes.

 

So now what do you eat this with besides chips?  Well Anything.  It makes  topping for Carne Asada, chicken, Pork chops, eggs, and even chilaquiles.  The jicama adds a refreshing, crunchy element that brightens up anything.  of course, htis being near the end of summer, I like to can it an keepsoem around for parties.

 

Happy Eating,

-The Doctor

Summer=cookout=BBQ, we all know that. So, in celebration of the beginning of warm weather and grillin’ time, I’ve put together a simple, yet different BBQ sauce to “WOW” the friends and family with. This isn’t your everyday, run of the mill toxic sludge you get in the store. This is how it’s made on the homestead, well kinda. This recipe is based on one of the basic four styles of sauce (tomato base, vinegar base, mustard base, and dry). Keep an eye out during the summer for variations on this and recipes with the other four.

1 small, seedless watermelon (it if’s not, we can just strain it later) enough for 1 1/2-2 cups of puree)
1/4c spicy brown mustard
1/2c sugar
1/4c cider vinegar (not that distilled crap, get the good stuff)
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 small onion, chopped fine (about 1/4c)
2 tbsp whole butter
1c ketchup (organic if you can get it)

1. Start a pot on low heat. Add the butter and let it melt. Swirl the pot if you have to.

2. Add the onion and let it sweat, you don’t want to get any color on this. The onions should barely be sweating and just lazily cooking away. stir them every 30 seconds or so for about 5-10 minutes, or until translucent.

3. While the onion are cooking, peel the watermelon, and rough chop it. if you have a blender or a food processor, puree it. (Strain out the seeds if you have one with seeds) If not, just crush it up in a bowl with you hands, you’ll just have a chunkier sauce) Put this off to the side for now.

4. Add the sugar and vinegar to the pot. When all the sugar has dissolved, bring the pot to a boil and reduce the liquid down to about 1/3 of what it was.

5. Turn the pot back down and add the mustard and ketchup. When this starts to bubble lightly, add the watermelon puree/chunks and Worcestershire. When this starts to bubble, turn to flame down to low and let it cook for 30-40 minutes. Stir every few minutes.

When it’s ready, serve it hot, cold whatever. It’s going to be thinner than most BBQ sauces you are used to, but it’s still sweet and tasty. I like it on pulled pork and turkey, but use it in place of anything you use for your normal BBQ sauce.

Welcome back, let’s start Round 2. Last week I put up a fairly wicked burger. This week, we’re doing something to put on top of it, or dip your chips in, or whatever you want to do with it. It’s quick, easy, and pretty damn tasty.

Roasted Corn Guacamole

3 large Haas Avocados
1 small red onion, peeled, cut into 1/2″ rings
1 ear fresh corn
oil
salt and pepper
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 Roma tomato
Tabasco
2 limes

1. Preheat your oven to about 400. Take a bit of oil and rub the corn and onion rings, then season them with salt and pepper. Place them on any kind of baking pan and cook them for about 15-20 minutes, or until you have some color on the corn and the onions are soft.

2. When the onions and corn are ready, pop them in the fridge for a few minutes. This will cool them down enough for you to handle and cut later. Move to step 3 while you’re waiting. CHOP CHOP.

3. Yup, step 3 is chopping the cilantro. For guac, I like to leave the chunks bigger. Just take a knife and push through the leaves a couple of times. You can cut it finer if you like.

4. Now that your vegetables have cooled, take a knife and run it down the side of the corn cob, to take the kernels off. Next, rough chop or dice the onions. You want the pieces to be between 1/2″ and 1/4″. Dice the tomato in the same fashion.

5. Avocados are next. These are easy. Cut them in half, cutting around the pit, and just twist them apart. ( Seriously, it’s important to have nice, ripe avocados for this. If you don’t, you might as well go to some crap chain restaurant and eat that pre-made garbage.) Now you’re asking “How do I get the pit out?” Easy, take a knife, and hack into it SOFTLY. Just enough to embed the end of the blade, closest to the handle, into the pit. then twist it out. Take a spoon and scoop the avocado halves out. It doesn’t matter if you break them up, you’re mashing them anyway.

6. Here’s the fun part, mashin’ time. Take the avocado, place it in a bowl with the sour cream, cilantro, onions and corn. Then mash ’em up as much as you like. I like to leave it a bit chunky. I use the back of a spoon or a fork. You can use a potato masher, jack hammer, or any other implement of destruction you choose.

7. Cut the limes and squeeze them right into the avocado mix, season it with salt and pepper and add as much Tabasco as you like for a little kick. Mix the seasonings in, make sure everything is mixed evenly, and eat.

See? Easy. Feel free. I put this on everything. Chips, burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, you name it. See ya next week.

The Doctor