Lest my stories of dining out give the wrong impression, I wanted to make sure that it was clear that most of my eating these days occurs at home. The occasional dining out splurge is balanced by weeks of meals at home. Here are a couple of successful recent home cooked meals.
I have tried in the past to successfully replicate Jamaican styled ox tails and I finally "nailed" it. I combined a couple of recipes I found online to give it "that" taste - in this case the key ingredients were thyme, ginger, soy sauce, a jalapeno (couldn't find scotch bonnet), and all spice (in addition to things like garlic, onion, pepper, scallion, tomato, carrots, and beef stock). After browning the ox tails, I added the stock and vegetables and started the slow process of reducing it all.
Four hours and a can of broad beans later and we're home. I served this with coco rice and peas and was a happy camper.
Inspired by the deep dish pizza stories of a friend, we decided to make some of our own this past weekend. Ours were thin crust (we let our dough rise for two hours) and cooked in cast iron cookware. The first was a vegetable pie featuring mushroom, jalapeno, tomato, garlic, onion, fresh mozzarella, and fresh grated Parmesan. The cast iron skillet I used for this pie is about 15" across so the crust was a little thinner than originally planned.
We cooked the second pie in a cast iron enamel dutch oven that has a diameter of about 12" so the crust came out slightly thicker than the first pie. This was our meat pie but aside from substituting pepperoni for mushroom and omitting the jalapenos, the toppings were otherwise the same. The cast iron cookware we used contributed to great crisp crusts on both pies. Though my sauce came out sweeter than I had planned, there were no complaints and nary a slice remaining when all was said and done.
I have tried in the past to successfully replicate Jamaican styled ox tails and I finally "nailed" it. I combined a couple of recipes I found online to give it "that" taste - in this case the key ingredients were thyme, ginger, soy sauce, a jalapeno (couldn't find scotch bonnet), and all spice (in addition to things like garlic, onion, pepper, scallion, tomato, carrots, and beef stock). After browning the ox tails, I added the stock and vegetables and started the slow process of reducing it all.
Four hours and a can of broad beans later and we're home. I served this with coco rice and peas and was a happy camper.
Inspired by the deep dish pizza stories of a friend, we decided to make some of our own this past weekend. Ours were thin crust (we let our dough rise for two hours) and cooked in cast iron cookware. The first was a vegetable pie featuring mushroom, jalapeno, tomato, garlic, onion, fresh mozzarella, and fresh grated Parmesan. The cast iron skillet I used for this pie is about 15" across so the crust was a little thinner than originally planned.
We cooked the second pie in a cast iron enamel dutch oven that has a diameter of about 12" so the crust came out slightly thicker than the first pie. This was our meat pie but aside from substituting pepperoni for mushroom and omitting the jalapenos, the toppings were otherwise the same. The cast iron cookware we used contributed to great crisp crusts on both pies. Though my sauce came out sweeter than I had planned, there were no complaints and nary a slice remaining when all was said and done.
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3 comments:
Those pizzas are making me hungry.
The before/after shots of the oxtails are great--the before looks like vegetable soup, but the after has that inviting color.
The crap economy and job market certainly encourages home cooking. It's one of those silver linings, I guess.
I was really happy with the ox tails. It took a lot of time to get there but the end result had the flavor I was looking for. I enjoyed those leftovers for days!
It was fun making the pizzas. I definitely want to work on my sauce though. I'm looking forward to yours on Wed.
I'll keep your blog's culinary trend in mind the next time I consider taking a peek while I'm waiting for dinner to finish cooking.
Those pics are mighty appetizing. I'll have to hit you up for that ox tail recipe even though I'll probably be making it for just myself (wife does not share my love for that dish).
Thanks again for sharing.
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