Super Simple 3 Ingredient Crab Salad

The young lady I work with on Mondays always has great taste.  On Mondays we make lunch together.  Today she wanted something with crab.  I didn't get out to do some real crabbing so imitation crab had to do.  So here it is a super simple crab salad sandwich.

You will need:
1 package of crab meat (imitation or real).
1 Poblanno chili pepper (or any kind of pepper if you want it spicy go ahead and fire it up)
1 Cup of mayonnaise or Miracle Whip

Instructions:
Chop the pepper and crab in small pieces, then combine in a bowl all the ingredients and mix well.  Serve on your favorite bread or just eat it the way it is.

Enjoy friends.

Mexican lasagna coming soon

So we are having a Cinco de Mayo themed pot luck next week at the office.  A number of ideas came to mind but one stuck out.  Do any of you remember Mexican Hot Dish from the school cafeteria growing up?  Personally, I can still taste it.  The taco meat, cheese, and soft tortillas just coming together in glorious casserole form, ah delicious.  Not quite sure how it will go down when we put our spin on it.  I can assure you it will sizzle with freshness.

Pan Seared Lamb with Mustard Cream Sauce, Black Eyed Pea Cakes and Southern Style Mustard Greens

My first rodeo with lamb.  Thomas and I cooked this one up.  I used to work at this place in Savannah, GA that had a black eyed pea cake sandwich that was marketed as a homemade veggie burger.  I've been wanting to try to make one myself for a long time now so here it is.  Thomas suggested the sour cream and salsa based off his delicious experience with a black bean rice cake at a Fernandina Beach Florida restaurant.  He also suggested the mustard greens.  All around this was pretty delicious.  Enjoy friends.  Also I'd like to put a nice shout out to the readers in Russia.

Pan Seared Lamb, Black Eyed Pea Cake, and Southern Style Mustard Greens

For the lamb you will need:

-         4 lamb chops

-         Olive oil

-         A rub of equal amounts dry mustard, onion powder, garlic salt, and black pepper.

Directions:

In a large skillet turn on medium heat with a thin layer of olive oil.  Rub one side of the lamb and place the lamb rubbed side down.  Rub the top side now.  Cook to your desired temperature, flip and finish on the other side.  Let rest for a few minutes and then top with the mustard cream sauce.

For the greens you will need:

-         1 bag of fresh mustard greens

-         2lbs of leftover smoked pork

-         Juice of 3 limes

-         ½ cup of salt

Directions:

Wash the greens first.  Then place in a large stock pot with water to submerge, salt, lime juice and smoked meat.  Stew for about an hour.

For the black eyed pea cakes you will need:

-         2 cans of black eyed peas

-         3 cloves fresh chopped garlic

-         ¼ cup fresh chopped parsley

-         1tbsp fresh chopped oregano

-         1tbsp fresh chopped thyme

-         ¼ cup fresh chopped basil

-         ½ sweet onion chopped

-         Flour to bind

-         Juice of 2 limes

-         Olive oil

-         Oil for frying

Directions:

Strain the peas and place in large mixing bowl.  Pour the lime juice and herbs in the mixing bowl.  In a small skillet sweat the onion and garlic with a light amount of olive oil.  Then add the onions and garlic to the mixing bowl.  Mash the contents well.  Now add the flour for binding, just enough to bind.  Make some pea cakes (kinda like making hamburger patties).  Makes about 5 cakes.  Heat some cooking oil in a shallow skillet and fry until golden brown.  Top with salsa and sour cream.

 

For sauce and toppings:

Mustard Cream Sauce:

-         1 cup sour cream

-         ¼ cup mayonnaise

-         Horseradish brown mustard to taste

*mix ingredients together and serve on top of lamb

Black eyed pea cake topping:

-         sour cream and salsa

Tortoise Q Smoked Wangs!!!!

We've got a newcomer to Dinner Bromantic.  This recipe is his.  Welcome Blake Moody.

Blake and I met back in August of 2012 at a BBQ competition where he took first in ribs.  Blake is the owner and operator of Tortoise Q BBQ Competition BBQ Team out of Jacksonville FL.  This all started with a pot luck at work tomorrow where I decided to smoke some wings for the folks at work.  I've never smoked just wings before so I sought the internet and then turned to Blake.  Blake has been a longtime fan of Dinner Bromantic and I am pleased to finally collaborate with him.  This really is all him.  I just did the cooking.

First thing you need to do is go to the store and get a 2 liter of your preferred soda.  I used Dr. Pepper as I see it often used in BBQ recipes.  You will also need Siracha sauce, brown sugar, 6 limes, real butter, and wings.  You will also need a smoker and roaster pans.

Next combine in a sauce pan 3 cups of the soda of your choice, 2-3 cups of brown sugar, and the juice of your 6 limes.  Boil and then reduce heat, stirring often until reduced to syrup.  While you are cooking the glaze fire up your smoker so its ready.  

Next, prepare your wings in roaster pans.  Season liberally with salt and pepper and spread the wings evenly.  Cut up 1 stick of butter per pack of wings into small 1 inchish cubes.  Then spread those butter cubes around the pans.  

Next, smoke the wings as seasoned with the butter, salt, and pepper for about 45 minutes at 250 degrees.

Continue stirring your glaze until it is syrupy while you are smoking.  After this strain the butter from the chicken, and pour half of the glaze over the wings and toss evenly, cover and smoke for another 25 minutes.

After this, uncover and pour the rest of the glaze over the wings and toss again.  Smoke for another 25 minutes.

Welcome to deliciousness.

You're welcome.

Pan Seared Salmon with Cucumber Buerre Blanc and Roasted Asparagus

Interesting birth of this dish.  I had just spent the day with my niece and I was on my way back home to think of something to cook.  I had considered just getting sushi to go, since I was told to go ahead and have something my wife wouldn't want since she was out with her friend.  Then I though about cooking up something fancy.  When I'm on a fancy quest of culinary, I often call Thomas.  Thomas is the Executive Dinner Service Chef of a local restaurant and a solid bro.  We've done some BBQ together and one of the recipes on here before.  I had his stuffed grouper recently at the restaurant The Mad Hatter Tea Shop in St. Marys, GA.  It had this delightful sauce called a ber blanc on it.  Which is litterally in French (butter white).  So I called Thomas and asked him how to create a ber blanc in a nutshell.  Then I noticed he was unloading supplies at the restaurant.  So I said, "I'll just come to you and help you unload."  So we discussed food and what I should make.  This then led to us cooking this delighful dish together.  Enjoy friends.

Pan Seared Salmon with Cucumber Buerre Blanc and Roasted Asparagus

You will need:

-         One large filet of salmon.

-         2 cloves of garlic finely chopped.

-         ½ red onion chopped.

-         1 ½ stick of butter.

-         1 pack of Arborio rice.

-         1 large can of chicken stock.

-         1 cup of heavy cream.

-   About 1 cup of white wine, we used pinot grigio.

-         About 4 tablespoons of olive oil.

-         Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.

-         About ½ cup of malt vinegar.

-         1 cucumber chopped.

-         ¼ cup fresh grated parmesan.

-         1 fresh bunch of asparagus (trim the edges).

Begin with the prep work of chopping your ingredients: Red onion, garlic, cucumber, and chop about a stick of butter into cubes for quick melting, and trim the asparagus.  At this time you may also want to season your salmon.  We seasoned it by a simple rub of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Make sure you season both sides of the filet.

Buerre Blanc:

We recommend starting the ber blanc first.  In a small saucepan begin sweating ½ of your pre chopped onions with the malt vinegar.  Sweat this down until it is almost dry.  Now add the white wine, cream, and cucumbers.  With a stick blender, blend down the onions and cucumbers in the sauce.  Now reduce this by half.  Right before it comes time to plate the dish add the butter about 2 cubes at a time and whisk well.  Continue until it is nice and thick, but not too thick.  Season even further with salt, pepper and garlic powder if you like.   

Risotto:

In another small sauce pan pour in your chicken stock and turn that burner on medium low.

In another pan, a deep frying pan is what I use, begin sweating your garlic with ½ a stick of butter and the rest of the red onion you have chopped.  Do this until your garlic is brown and the onions have caramelized.  Now add with a ladle, one ladle full of chicken stock to your deep frying pan with the garlic, onions and butter.  Immediately add the Arborio rice to the pan.  Continue adding ladles of chicken stock, one ladle full at a time constantly stirring the rice until it has reach a consistency where it doesn't dissolve in your mouth but has a slight chew to it. 

If you don’t time it perfectly for the risotto to be done at the same time as everything else, that is ok.  Just remove from heat and cover.  Once it comes time for plating just add a few tablespoons of butter to the risotto and stir it up.  This should break it apart and make it more presentable.

Asparagus:

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a baking dish season the asparagus with a light dressing of olive oil topped with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.  Then lightly coat them with the Parmesan.  Bake for about 10 minutes.

Salmon:(Make sure you season both sides of the filet)

In another frying pan, get it on medium hot with the olive oil.  Place your salmon fillets down on the hot pan.  Cook until the color of the fish changes about ¾ the way up the filet.  Flip and cook for about another minute to minute and half. 

To plate the dish:

We started with a generous portion of risotto.  Topped with the salmon filet and buerre blanc sauce, then asparagus at a very appealing angle.

We really enjoyed this one.  Hope you all do too.

Fat Tony's Cottage (Shepherds pie with an Italian twist)

So my brother in law and I wanted to cook something this time.  We were stumped on what we wanted to make but then it hit us, shepherd's pie.  So I googled a typical shepherd's pie recipe and then we made it our own by changing it up a bit.  The major change didn't happen until we were in Publix, specifically at the meat locker when we chose to go with ground Italian sausage rather than ground beef.  We had already got Parmesan cheese for the mashed potatoes.  If you look back at one of the first posts there is a Parmesan garlic mashed potato recipe that we used in this recipe too.  For our first rodeo with shepherd's pie, this turned out really nice.  The hardest part was thinking of the name, "Fat Tony's Cottage."  

Ingredients:

1lb ground Italian sausage

1lb red potatoes

1 cup Parmesan cheese (fresh shredded)

1 cup white cheddar cheese (fresh shredded)

1/4 cup fresh chopped thyme

1/4 cup fresh chopped oregano

1/2 chopped Vidalia onion

1 cup fresh or frozen peas

4 cloves fresh chopped garlic

3/4 stick of real salted butter

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 egg yolk
About 2 tablespoons of flour

Let's get started.

First you'll need to quarter your potatoes and get them boiling in a pot.

While the potatoes are cooking chop the onion, garlic, and herbs.

Once you have your herbs, onion and garlic chopped start heating a deep frying pan with 1/4 stick of butter.

Spread the butter all around and then add the onions, herbs and garlic.

Cook these until the onions have sweat (they should be translucent). Stir often.

Now add the peas and stir until the peas are cooked (about 3 minutes).

Preheat your oven to 400

Now add the sausage.  Break it apart into smaller pieces.

Add the Worcestershire sauce. 

Mix this with the rest of the pan and cook until browned thoroughly.
Add flour and mix well to thicken

Add pepper as you like.

Potatoes should be ready to strain about halfway through the cooking of the meat layer. 

Strain the potatoes and return to pot.  

Add the Parmesan, heavy cream, and the rest of the butter (1/2 stick).

Mash the potatoes well.

Now add the egg yolk and mix that thoroughly. (very important ingredient as it is a binder for the potatoes).

Now get a square baking dish about 3 inches deep (typical Pyrex square dish).

Spread out the meat mix first, evenly across the dish.

Next spread out the mashed potatoes.

Top with one cup of fresh shredded white cheddar.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Taste:  The sausage really sets it off along with the Parmesan and oregano flavoring really give it a nice cross culinary profile.  A hearty delicious meal with elegance and explosion of flavor.

The Memphis Asian (Memphis style BBQ sandwich in egg roll form)

This one all started one night when my brother in law and I were playing Monopoly and we got hungry.  I had left over smoked pork butt in the fridge and egg roll wrappers too (I was going to try to sub egg roll wrappers for seaweed in making sushi, but was able to find the seaweed).  Glad that worked out.  So I said "dude let's make some smoked pork egg rolls!"  He said "hell yeah I'm down!"  That night we made a very simple one, meat and egg roll with a mustard sauce dipper.  While eating it I said, "you know what would make this a million times better?  Memphis style coleslaw."  Two weeks later, the Memphis Asian was born. For your ingredients you will need:

All you see here:  1 Bag of dry coleslaw, egg roll wrappers, your favorite mustard based bbq sauce and some left over smoked pork butt.

I only used about half of the bag of slaw and about a pound of pork.  It should make about 16 rolls depending on how heavy you stuff.  I kinda eye balled the sauce, but it was in the 1/2 cup ball park.

Next, gather your ingredients in the bowl:

Toss that beautiful mess:

Now start wrapping.   Once you are ready to wrap get a shallow pan of oil hot.  If you have a deep fryer that would probably work better.

Here is the step by step wrapping.  Wrapping directions are also provided on the egg roll wrapper package.

Step one:

Step two:

Step three:

Step four:

Now it's fry time.  Make sure you've got good hot oil.  Since all the ingredients are cooked the frying takes less then three minutes (about a minute and a half on each side).  Unless you are deep frying which then it's till they are golden.

And now.... The Memphis Asian!

Two words, FRICKIN DILISIOUS!