Savory Cheddar Garlic Cornbread

This is a little something I made for the office last week.  It was goooooooooood.  Try it folks.  Simple, savory, delicious and great with chili.

Savory Cheddar Garlic Cornbread

You will need:

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup of all purpose flour (gluten free sub with gluten free Bisquick)

- 1 cup of cornmeal

- 1 stick of salted butter

- 1 cup buttermilk

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- cup shredded cheddar cheese

- 3-4 cloves fresh garlic

- ½ can of cream corn

- cooking spray

MMMMM Cornbread

- Begin by preheating your oven to 375

- Now finely chop your garlic cloves

- Next, melt the stick of butter in the microwave in a mixing bowl

- Now beat the two eggs in with the butter

- Add the rest of the contents and whisk well (order doesn’t really matter) Just whist until there are no clumps

- Now grease a loaf pan or muffin pan, whichever you like

- Pour in your batter, and bake for 30-40 minutes

- Check your dish at the 30 minute mark with a butter knife into the center.  If it comes out clean, it is ready.

Enjoy.

Bacon Wrapped Quail with Quail Gravy and Simple Risotto

Hello friends.  Just Jeremy again.  Nothing much bro about this bromantic episode.  But I want to share what is probably the best dish I've ever made.  My father in law gave me about 6 quail this weekend and this is what I did with it.  I'd never had quail before, so this was definitely an adventure.  I decided to make a bacon wrapped quail with simple risotto.  The gravy was a last minute decision, but a wise one.

Here it is...

You will need:

- About 6 Quail

- 8-10 sprigs of fresh rosemary

- About 7 cloves of fresh garlic

- 1 cup Arborio rice

- 1 and ½ sticks of butter

- Salt

- Fresh ground pepper

- Red pepper flakes

- 2 cups chicken broth

- Flour

- 1 pack thick cut bacon

- 1 small yellow onion

- About a handful of fresh basil

- 1 cup fresh or frozen peas

Let’s get started.  First we are working on the quail. 

- Preheat your oven to 325

- Finely chop 4 cloves of garlic

- Finely chop 5 sprigs of rosemary

- Melt 1 stick of butter in a mixing bowl (I used the microwave)

- Add the garlic, rosemary, salt to taste, about 5 grinds of the pepper mill, and about a tablespoon of red pepper flakes to the mixing bowl and whisk well

- Now clean your quail

- Now toss your quail in the butter bath, toss it good, real good

- Now get a large casserole dish

- Line it with bacon

- Wrap one quail for every two pieces of bacon

- If you are using a standard pack of bacon you will end up having one extra piece.  I just wrapped the 6^th quail in 3 pieces.

- Now put it in the oven

- Set the kitchen timer for 45 minutes

Now it’s risotto time!!!!

- Get your chicken broth warming in a small sauce pot, about medium heat, then reduce to low when it’s cooking time.

- Chop the rest of that garlic, rosemary, basil, and the little onion.

- Chopped?  Good.  Put that ½ stick of butter in a large skillet.

- Add the onion, rosemary, basil, and garlic.

- Get that business simmering on medium high.

- Let this simmer until the onion is translucent.

- Translucent now?  Add the cup of Arborio.

- Using a ladle scoop out one ladle of broth and add it to the skillet.

- Stir constantly (I like to risotto with a wooden spoon).

- Continue to stir, when it appears that the Arborio has absorbed that ladle of broth, add another and continue the process.

- Keep going until you are almost out of broth.

- Keep stirring.

- On the last ladle (by this time your quail should be about 2 minutes away from being done), add the peas.

- Stir it in really well and turn off the heat.

- Take the quail out of the oven.

- Empty the broth pot.

It’s GRAVY TIME!!!!

- Add the drippings to the broth pot.

- Turn burner on medium low.

- Add about ¼ cup of flour at a time to the pot and whisk.

- Continue until the gravy is either as thick or thin as you like it.

Now plate it up and enjoy.

The Southern Gentleman

Just Jeremy here.  So I tried Gruyere cheese for the first time this week and was inspired.  Gruyere is a sharp Swiss cheese, tangy with a bite.  So that got me thinking about a simple ham and Swiss.  Then I thought, how can I fancy pants a simple ham and Swiss?  Then it hit me, prosciutto.  Prosciutto is a dry cured Italian ham.  So there we have it a fancy pants ham and Swiss.  But I didn't stop there.  I wanted to put a southern twist on this.  Enter, the fried green tomato.  In college I worked at a restaurant that had a fried green tomato sandwich on the menu.  It was amazing.  I think what really set it off was the aioli.  So here we have it, assembled together is the Southern Gentleman.  It is a toasted prosciutto and gruyere on sourdough with fried green tomato and aioli.

Gruyere and Prosciutto Toasted Sandwich with Fried green tomato

Thick sliced Gruyere cheese

¼ lb slice Prosciutto

Firm green tomatoes

Sourdough bread

Breading

1/3 cup Corn meal

1 cup flour

1 egg

½ cup buttermilk

Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare in one bowl the corn meal and flour with salt and pepper mixed.

In another bowl the egg and buttermilk.

In a frying pan heat a shallow bath of oil on medium.

Slice tomatoes and first in buttermilk bath then the flour/cornmeal, then fry

Flip the tomatoes in the oil about a minute on each side.

In another pan butter one side of the sourdough slice and brown.

In another pan heat 1/4 lb of prosciutto topped with grated Gruyere.

Remove bread from pan and generously spread aioli on each untoasted side.

Now top the prosciutto and Gruyere, then tomato and serve.

Aioli

2 egg yolks

½ juice of lemon (or white wine vin)

1 cup olive oil

Tbsp Dijon

2 Cloves garlic

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Fresh basil

Fresh oregano

Follow the link here to prepare: http://youtu.be/MgqIlFlYLxc

Taste analysis:

Best sandwich ever!

Q Competition Practice

Thomas and I (Jeremy) will be entering an amateur BBQ competition August 18 in Jacksonville, FL.  This will be each of our first competition.  The grand prize is $100 and a custom built smoker.  We will be competing with ribs and chicken leg quarters.  Today we practiced.

We began yesterday by making a brine for the chicken and brined the chicken overnight.  For those of you who don't know what a brine is, it is an acid free marinate composed mostly of water and salt.  We used apple juice, chardonay, rosemary, thyme, fresh garlic cloves, salt, and water.  I will not release the recipe yet because the competition is watching.  So here it goes.

First we got the charcoal chimney going.  While the chimney was going we prepared the ribs and chicken to be put on the smoker.  First we removed the sausage casing like membrane from the back of the ribs and rubbed it down with our rub.  Once again, I'm not releasing the rub recipe yet.  Then we rubbed the chicken leg quarters.

Once the meat was rubbed the charcoal was ready to go in the firebox.  Then we added 2 logs of firewood to the firebox.  I like to let the dampers wide open until the temp is right.  I like to smoke between 225 and 275 degrees.  Once the temp is ready the meat goes on.

I usually smoke both chicken and ribs for 4 hours on this temp.  About halfway through the smoke I wrapped the meat in foil.  Then I added some extra ingredients (not telling), and let it smoke for another 2 hours or until its reached an internal temp of 180 degrees.  

Here's the final product:

Ribs!

Chicken!

Till next time....

Introducing Thomas

Dinner Bromantic is getting a little more bromantic.  Introducing Chef Thomas (for real, he's a chef).

Salmon Thai Style

Salmon Thai Style

     Just Jeremy here.  But Thomas is here through choice of ingredients.  I asked Thomas to give me a "mystery box."  For those of you unfamiliar with mystery boxes, they are when a cook is given a list of ingredients they must use in a dish.  The ingredients Thomas gave me were Snapper (I subbed Salmon because I couldn't find Snapper fresh, and I wasn't about to pay $10 for frozen), Rice vinegar, Ginger ale, Peanuts or Cashews, jasmine rice, and daikon raddish. So I got to thinking, I've got vinegar, I've got rice wine, I've got jasmine rice, I've got peanuts, I've got daikon radish, and I've got seafood, what do I make?  I was thinking this has Thai written all over it.  So I googled a simple peanut sauce and put my own spin on it.  Then I thought about the raddish.  A raddish has a nice bit to it, and if I added some cabbage to it, it could be a delightful Asain slaw.  Well....Here it is.  

You will need:

Fresh salmon fillet

1 tbsp Olive oil

Salt

1 ½ cup Rice vinegar

1 cup Ginger ale

Juice of three limes

½ cup peanut butter

¼ cup chopped green peanuts

1lb daikon radish

1 small head of cabbage

1 can lite coconut milk

Water

This is the order you should do it in so all the ingredients are ready at the same time:

Rice:

-In a rice cooker add the jasmine rice (about ½ cup).

-Add 1 cup of water.

-Turn on rice cooker.

(if you can get both sauces going at once, do so)

Peanut Sauce:

-Begin by peeling about 7 green peanuts in a food processor (I use the Ninja).

-Chop peanuts with the processor.

-In a sauce pan add ½ cup rice vinegar and peanuts and bring to medium high heat.

-Add half the can of coconut milk and whisk well.

-Add two large spoonfuls of peanut butter to the mix whisk till blended well.

-Add juice of one lime whisk well.

-Add water a little bit at a time until it reaches the consistency you want and blend.

-Reduce heat to low until serving.

Slaw Sauce:

-In a sauce pan begin with 1 cup of ginger ale.

-Turn on medium heat.  Stir it.

-Add juice of two limes.  Stir it.

-Add the remaining coconut milk.  Stir it.

-Add 1 cup of the rice vinegar.  Stir it.

-Place in freezer to cool.

Slaw:

-Using a cheese shredder, shred your daikon radish and cabbage in a large mixing bowl.

-Add the slaw sauce a little bit at a time and toss the slaw.

-Add until the slaw is saturated.

-Strain the slaw.

-Place slaw in fridge.

Salmon:

-Score the salmon skin.  You do this by slicing down about half way through the filet on the skin side of the salmon.  Place your scores as close together as you can.

-Season the scores with salt.

-In a medium hot pan add the tablespoon of olive oil.

-Place salmon skin side down and season the top the filet with salt and pepper.

-Cook on this side until the color has changed from orange to a cloudy pink ¾ of the way up the filet.

-Flip the filet and cook for about 2 more minutes.

Plating (begin once you’ve flipped the salmon):

-Place about ½ cup or the jasmine rice on the plate.

-To the side of the rice, place about one cup of the slaw.

-Salmon should be ready now, place it on top of the rice.

-With a ladle scoop your peanut sauce on top of the salmon.

-Now enjoy, it’s delicious.

Herb and Garlic Butter Rubbed Chicken

Finished Dishes

Close up on the finished chicken

Pre-cook chicken rubbed and ready to cook.

Herb and Garlic Butter Rubbed Chicken With Homemade Stuffing and Vegetable Caserole

You will need:

1 handful of fresh thyme

1 handful of fresh parsley

4 cloves fresh garlic

1 stick of butter salted

Olive Oil

1 whole chicken

1 baguette

1 whole red onion

3 yellow squash

4 cups of snow peas

½ cup of shredded cheese

Salt and pepper

Begin by finely chopping your herbs and garlic.  Divide your herbs and garlic in half.  In a microwave safe bowl heat a cold stick of butter for 1 minute.  Keep the butter in the bowl.  Add half of the herbs and garlic to the bowl of butter and mix with a whisk, then place in the fridge.  Add the rest of the herbs and garlic to a large mixing bowl.  Rip your baguette in half.  Begin tearing half of the baguette into a food processor.  Then process your bread and add to the bowl.  Continue with the remaining baguette and add to the bowl.  Now drizzle the bread crumbs with olive oil.  Mix the bowl contents, drizzle and again and mix again.

Preheat the oven to 350

Now that the butter has had a chance to chill remove from the fridge.  Now get out the chicken.  Remove the gizzards and neck from the bird cavity.  Give the bird a rinse.  Now its time to rub the bird.  First we are going to rub under the skin.  Place your fingers up under the skin in between the meat and skin and loosen it all up.  Now liberally rub under the skin.  Try to get under the drum sticks too.  Now it’s stuffing time.  Stuff the bird with as much stuffing as you can fit in there.  You should have less than ½ a cup of stuffing left over.  After the bird is stuffed, you can rub the outside of the bird.

Put in the oven uncovered for 1 and ½ hours or until internal temp has reached 180.

Vegetable casserole

Cut one red onion and 3 yellow squash.  Add red onion yellow squash and snow peas to a mixing bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil, shake a good bit of salt to taste, and fresh ground pepper, mix up with some shredded cheese, add to a casserole dish and bake for 1 hour.

Plate it all up and enjoy!