National Junk Food Day

Today is National Junk Food Day! I cannot think of a recipe of mine that more represents the spirit of the day then my Grillswith. You start with a donut, fry it a little more, and add ice cream. Which is also appropriate because it is National Ice Cream Day! Two for one! I love it when a plan comes together.

Checkout my Grillswith recipe here. It is one of my most popular, and with good reason.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you are having a great St. Patrick's Day! I gave up meat for lent, so it is not quite as fun for me as it usually is, but I am making do. I'm currently working on an Irish Soda Bread recipe that I should have up in time for next year.

Here are the Irish themed recipes I have put out to help you enjoy the "spirit" of the holiday!

My St. Patrick's Day shake is a great drink for parties, especially if you are enjoying better weather then I am right now.

While my Irish Redhead is not strictly speaking Irish or green, it is Irish themed and that seems to be enough reason to drink it in America!

St Patrick's Day

Tomorrow is the day when Americans dress in too much green, put on some ridiculous hats, and get really drunk. Fortunately it's on a Saturday this year so we can all take some time to recover tomorrow.

As Americans, we never pass up an opportunity to use another culture's celebration as an excuse to day drink.

A certain burger chain has a seasonal beverage that looks the part, but does not help with the whole getting drunk part of St. Patrick's Day. To that end, if you are a responsible adult, I present my solution, The Viking Chef's St. Patty's Day Shake!

Kaiser Wiener

Well it's October so you know what that means, pumpkin spice everything! Well, yes, but it's also Oktoberfest! So, I'll be putting out a couple recipes celebrating classic German flavors that go perfectly with a cold pint. Let's start off with something I actually came up with last year, that I affectionately call my Kaiser Wiener.

My goal was to come up with a dish that contained as many prototypical German things as I could, and, outside of using a pretzel roll, I think I've done pretty well.

This recipe calls for a slightly obscure dried meat called speck. Speck is a smoked German version of prosciutto. Like prosciutto, it is great raw with cheese or wrapped around melon or asparagus, but when it's fried it cooks up like bacon. If you can't get your hands on speck you could use prosciutto, but I'd recommend very thinly sliced bacon.

The ingredients listed below are per serving so you can scale easily for any size gathering. Also, it is a one skillet method that minimizes clean-up.

Ingredients:

1 club roll
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 German style bratwurst
1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
¼ c speck, cut into thin strips
1 tbsp German mustard
¼ c sauerkraut, well drained*

Directions:

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat for a few minutes until water sprinkled on the surface boils and skitters away. Butter the inside of a club roll and toast, butter side down, in the skillet until lightly brown and toasted. Lightly frying in butter helps create a moisture barrier that will help maintain the integrity of the roll when wet toppings (ie. sauerkraut) are introduced.

Set the toasted buns aside and then brown the bratwursts in the skillet until lightly browned on all sides and heated through. Evacuate from the pan.

Pour in the oil and then add the speck. Fry the speck for 3-5 minutes until lightly crisped and browned before removing from the pan and draining.

To assemble, spread mustard on the inside of the bun, layer on the sauerkraut, place on the bratwurst, and cover with the speck. Serve with a nice cold pint of amber and enjoy!

*When I say well drained, I mean I wrapped the sauerkraut in paper towels and squeezed it out. Anything less and you get a very soggy roll even after it has been lightly fried in butter.

Dark Side Shot

Yesterday was Star Wars Day, but today is the Revenge of the 5th. I wanted to make a drink in celebration. My Dark Side Shot is nearly black with just a hint of red. It goes down easy, just like succumbing to the Dark Side of the Force.

Ingredients:
½ oz kahlua
1 oz raspberry schnapps

Directions:
Pour the kahlua and schnapps into a shot glass and enjoy!

Help! I forgot it's Valentine's Day!

Well, actually I didn't. I put up a post about it last week. But you might have, and you might be scrambling for a great dinner idea that you can put together easily and quickly so no one will suspect your oversight. Never fear, dear reader, for I have just the thing for you!

Last year I put up a recipe for Pistachio Crusted Lemon Chicken and it is just the thing to get you through Valentine's Day. This recipe takes very little time to prep and little time to cook. It's healthy and won't have you feeling bloated so you will have plenty of energy for the rest of the night.

If you can't get your hands on lemon olive oil, don't worry, it will still taste great with regular olive oil. Can't get no-salt pistachios? No worries! Just use regular or lightly salted ones and cut out the added salt from the recipe!

So calm down, take a deep breath, tonight is going to go great! (With a little help from me, of course.)

Chocolate Covered Peppermint Popcorn

Chocolate covered popcorn is a great host or hostess gift for all the holiday parties going on this time of year. The only problem is that it is outrageously expensive to buy in store. Luckily for us, it is incredibly simple and easy to make, and really quick too. My second time making it took me just 20 minutes from walking through the door to a tray of delicious popcorn.

The directions I include are for making stove-top popcorn. If you have a popcorn popper, or another method you like better, please do whatever is most comfortable for you, this is just the method I like best since I don't have to store a unitasker and can just use the pots and pans I own.

Ingredients:

2 T oil

⅓ C popcorn kernels

Salt

1 C dark candy making chocolate

¼ C peppermints, crushed

Directions:

Popping the popcorn:

In your widest pan with a lid, pour in the oil and add a couple kernels of popcorn. When those kernels pop, add the rest of the popcorn and place on the lid, making sure to keep it slightly ajar so the steam doesn't make the popcorn soggy. Shake the pan gently to make sure all of the kernels get coated with oil. Once the popcorn starts popping, make sure to shake the pan occasionally so that the unpopped kernels get even heat.

When the popping slows to 2 or 3 seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, but don't take the lid off until the popping stops entirely or you will be picking up a shower of popcorn from the kitchen floor. Once the popping has stopped, pour the popcorn onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper, parchment paper, or my favorite, a silicone baking mat. Make sure to get the popcorn into 1 layer. Lightly salt the popcorn and then let it cool while you melt the chocolate.

Chocolate and peppermint:

Put the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 15 second intervals, stirring very thoroughly each time, until nice and liquid, about 90 degrees. With a spoon, drizzle the chocolate over the popcorn, making sure to get a bit on every piece. Before the chocolate cools, sprinkle on the crushed peppermints. Let the chocolate cool (I stick mine in the freezer to speed this up) and then break the popcorn pieces apart and store in airtight containment, or just eat it right away!

Cranberry Mulled Cider

Well it's the holiday season, which means everyone is adding cranberry to things, and I am no exception! I started seeing cranberry apple cider for sale recently and decided to make my own. I poked around on the internet looking for a recipe for a while, trying to find one that wasn't simply dumping a bunch of cranberry juice (which is mostly apple juice anyway) into apple cider. I had bought all these cranberries in preparation and by golly I was going to use them! After searching my kitchen for some other flavor enhancers, I came up with this parts list:

Ingredients:

½ gallon of apple cider
1 12 oz (by weight) package of cranberries
Zest of 1 lime
1 clementine or naval orange
1 sweet apple, sliced (I recommend a snapdragon)
5-6 star anise pods
3-4 short cinnamon sticks (about 3 inches)

Directions:

Pour the cider into your slow cooker and set on low.

Add the cranberries, making sure to rinse them first, and the zest of 1 lime. I used a standard vegetable peeler to simply peel the zest off, making sure to avoid the white pith underneath as much as possible, but using a fine grater will work just as well (it just doesn't make as pretty a picture).

Peel 1 clementine and add the sections. I made sure to slightly break them so that there would be good flavor extraction. Feel free to simply cut up a clementine, but if you don't peel it, you will get more citrus from the rind so be sure to shorten your cook time. I used a clementine instead of a naval orange because they are in season right now, and there are a lot of strong flavors in this cider and it could use the sweetness of the clementine. If you're making this when clementines aren't in season, a naval orange will work just fine.

Add the sliced apple, star anise pods, and cinnamon, stir to combine, and let it cook on low for about 2 hrs. Serve and enjoy!

A note about cooking time: because cranberry is such a strong flavor, I recommend you start tasting the cider about 1.5 hrs in to make sure you haven't over-extracted. Make sure you stir it gently before tasting it because the flavors have a tendency to separate into layers since cinnamon sinks and cranberries float. If you find that you have over-extracted, don't panic, just add a bit of salt. Salt helps block bitter flavor receptors on the tongue. I've also simply added some more cider to help mellow a bitter quaff.

St. Patty's Day Shake

A few years ago I got to try a Guinness shake and I decided I was going to serve that at every St. Patrick's Day party I would ever have from then on. But, I decided I wanted to make them green so I took the opportunity to add a little more flavor, and a little more alcohol, by adding creme de menthe. Thus was born one of my favorite cocktails, a light green dessert, perfect for St Patrick's Day parties.

Ingredients:

2 C of vanilla ice cream*

⅔ C of Irish stout

1.5 fluid oz of creme de menthe

Directions:

Add all ice cream, Guinness, and creme de menthe into your blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into your favorite glass and enjoy with a Guinness.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

*You can use any vanilla ice cream you want, but I would suggest a premium vanilla because the higher fat content and higher density makes for a smoother, tastier shake.

Roasted Sea Bass with Herbed Quinoa

This is my last recommended meal for Valentine's Day. Like my beef and vegetarian suggestions, I've provided instructions on how to get both parts of the meal out at the same time. This dish is another show stopper that will be sure to impress your significant other this Valentine's Day.

Ingredients:

Sea Bass:

12 oz sea bass filet
1 t of salt
1 T of shredded dill
Lemon slices
1 T of butter

Quinoa:

½ C of quinoa
1 C of vegetable stock
1 T of shredded dill
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Start with zesting the lemon you are using for the sea bass since you can use that lemon zest for the quinoa. Butter the bottom of an oven proof dish, be it skillet, casserole, or baking dish, and place the sea bass, skin side down, on the dish. Evenly salt the sea bass and evenly distribute the dill and the lemon slices on top of the sea bass.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the fish flakes easily or reaches an internal temp of 145.

While the sea bass cooks, boil the quinoa in the vegetable stock until the liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Stir in the dill and the lemon zest and salt to taste.

To serve, portion the sea bass and the quinoa and enjoy a pescaterian dinner for two.

Pan Seared Filet Mignon with Herbed Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Filet mignon is always a show stopper. It comes in these nice easy portions, it's low fat (for beef), with little to no connective tissue. It can stand up to almost any cooking method, including one of my favorites, high heat! A finishing butter adds a little fat to the steak which, since it contains little fat itself, helps it taste juicier. Using the same finishing butter to flavor your potatoes helps pull your dish together and helps it really impress.

Ingredients:

Herbed Creamy Mashed Potatoes:

1 lb of butter potatoes
¼ C of herbed finishing butter

½ C of heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Filet Mignon:

2 ¼ lb filets
2 T of olive oil
Salt
2 T herbed finishing butter

Directions:

To get everything on this plate out at the same time, let's start with prep. First, peel and chop your potatoes into small even chunks, then coat your 2 filets in olive oil and salt liberally. Start your cooking by placing the potatoes in a saucepan and covering with two inches of water. Bring to a boil and boil for 15-20 minutes or until the chunks are easily pierced by a fork or crushed with tongs.

While the water heats up, heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat, until water boils off instantly when spritzed on the surface. Sear your steaks for 5-7 minutes on each side, or until desired internal temp is reached. Remember that some heat will carry over and so they will continue to cook for a little bit once removed from heat.

Once the steaks are finished cooking, the potatoes should be nearly done, so cover the steaks and let them rest while you finish up the potatoes.

Drain the potatoes and place them in the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Add the butter and the cream and whip until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, portion the potatoes on the plate, place each steak on one plate and put a 1 tablespoon slice of butter on top of each steak. I served my plates with a side salad dressed with a citrus dressing.

Seared Tofu with Creamy Mushroom Risotto

This is my menu for a vegetarian Valentine's Day dinner. I think that the umami in the marinade on the tofu pairs well with the similar flavors in the mushrooms, and both components have complimentary creamy textures.

This meal makes it pretty easy to get everything out at about the same time, with just the risotto warming while you finish the tofu.

Start by getting together all the ingredients you will need for making the Mushroom Risotto and the Marinated Tofu. This will make assembling the dishes, faster, easier, and way less stressful.

Prep the tofu, place it in the marinade, and set it in the fridge to marinade while you make the risotto. Once the risotto is finished, place it on your smallest burner over the lowest heat to just keep it warm, then pan sear the tofu.

Arrange the seared tofu on your plates, portion out the risotto, and enjoy a nice romantic evening with your significant other. Pro tip; serve the dinner with the same wine you used in the risotto, it will tie the flavors together nicely.