Lannister Reuben Sandwich

'You alarm me!' said the King. 'I feel faint—Give me a ham sandwich!'

-Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you this is a low-calorie rueben sandwich, but we at least played around with the thousand island recipe to cut down a few calories.  We were so excited to try out the sauerkraut we made back in october, and it didn't disappoint!  All in all, this ended up being a delicious sandwich (despite not being able to find rye bread... stupid snow!)

What you need for the Thousand Island Dressing:

• 3/4 cup Plain, nonfat greek yogurt
• 3 tbsp Ketchup (we used some great gourmet ketchup we purchased at the farmer's market from Further Farms of Nashville)
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp minced onion
• 1 hard boiled egg
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp sweet relish
• 1/4 tsp salt

What you need for the Reuben:

• Rye bread (preferably)
• Corned Beef (we cooked this in the slow-cooker)
• Swiss Cheese
• Sauerkraut
• Thousand Island

To make the thousand island dressing, just mix everything together really well.  To get the hard-boiled egg to the right consistency, I would recommend pressing it through a strainer.

The sandwich is just as easy.  Take two slices of bread.  Place corned beef on one slice, and top the corned beef with sauerkraut.  Spread the dressing on the other slice of bread, and then place a piece of swiss cheese over the sauce.  

Toast the sandwich in a sandwich press (or on the stove) and voila!  Delicious sandwich!  One of these days, Stoney and I will make a post on making sauerkraut.  We jarred over a gallon of it 2 weeks ago, documenting our methods.  This kraut was just a spur-of-the-moment decision and we didn't even measure how much salt or pickling spice we used.  Verdict?  Tasty.  

The Gift Shepherd's Pie

I've always loved Shepherd's Pie, and decided to make my own fall vegetable-inspired version.  Instead of mashed potatoes on top, I used a pumpkin/sweet potato puree, and just to pump up the vegetable content, I added some Lacinato kale to the beef mixture.  I was incredibly happy with the results, and would happily eat this all winter long!

What you need:

• 1lb ground beef
• 3 ears corn, roasted and cut off of the cob
• 1 bunch Lacinato Kale, stems removed and leaves chopped 
• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 small pumpkin
• 1 onion, chopped and divided into 2 piles
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 tbsp sage, chopped
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp butter (or butter substitute, I used Smart Balance light butter spread)
• 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 tbsp flour
• Salt and pepper, to taste

First, pre-heat your oven to 350F.  Pierce the skin of the pumpkin and the sweet potatoes in a few places, wrap the sweet potatoes in foil, and place all three in the oven, baking for an hour.  While they are cooking, heat 1 tbsp butter in a skillet over medium-high heat and sauté 1/2 of the chopped onion, setting aside when it's done.  Shuck the corn and season with salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste, then wrap in foil.  

When there are 30 minutes of cook time remaining, put the corn in the oven with the pumpkin and sweet potatoes.  When the pumpkin and sweet potatoes are done, unwrap the potatoes and corn and set everything aside to cool down.

Next, melt 1 tbsp butter in a skillet over medium heat, and add beef and season with salt & pepper and 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce.  Once the beef has begun to brown, add the remaining onion and carrots and continue to cook until the onions have become translucent.  

While the beef and onion mixture is cooking,  heat the remaining 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp flour in a small saucepan over medium heat, making sure to stir constantly.  Add the broth and 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce and whisk as it heats to prevent lumps from forming.  Let it cook down for 1 minute, stirring to ensure it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan.

Once your gravy has thickened, add it to the beef mixture, stirring everything together.  

Next, add the chopped kale in batches, letting it wilt.    

Now, add your beef mixture to a greased baking dish, and cut the corn off of the cob, adding it to the baking dish.

At some point during your cooking, you will also want to make your potato/pumpkin topping.  This can be done at any point after the pumpkin and sweet potato come out of the oven.  To make the topping, cut your sweet potatoes and pumpkin in half, and (after removing pumpkin seeds) spoon the flesh into a blender.  Add in the cooked onion that you set aside earlier, sage, salt and pepper, and 1 tsp oil.  Blend until you have a smooth mixture, and then spoon it over the top of your beef and corn mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350F, uncovered.

Enjoy!   

Castle Black: One Pot Stroganoff

The boys. The beef-witted featherbrained rattleskulled clod-pated dim-domed noodle-noggined sapheaded lunk-knobbed boys. How could anybody accuse her of stealing them? Why would anybody want them anyway?

William Goldman, The Princess Bride.

This hearty, easy, one-pot dish was inspired by beef stroganoff, which was traditionally a Russian dish of sauteed beef with sour cream.  These days, stroganoff recipes vary wildly from the original dish, but they are undeniably tasty!  My recipe isn't quite as easy as some of the one-pot pasta recipes floating around, because it involves some browning of meat before-hand, and some stirring-in of ingredients later on, but it was still pretty darn easy.

Stoney and I decided to make this recipe to use up a small bison steak that has been in the freezer for awhile and to give us something tasty and filling to eat the night before a color run! Serves 4.

What you need:

• 6 oz. Bison filet (a lean cut of steak would also work), cut into small pieces
• 12 oz. package Extra Wide egg noodles. 
• 4 cups beef broth
• 2 cups of water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp reduced fat sour cream
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, halved
• 1/2 lb baby bella mushrooms, halved

 Heat the oil in large pot over medium-high heat.  Add in the garlic, bison, and worcestershire sauce and cook until the meat has browned. 

Add the onions, nutmeg and paprika and cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and cook another few minutes.

Now, put all of the other ingredients into the pot except for the sour cream and parsley.  At this point, the noodles will most likely not be submerged in the liquid, so stir as best you can, cover, and let everything simmer for 5-10 minutes to let those noodles soften up. 

Once the noodles have softened, stir them into the broth and let everything simmer, uncovered until the liquid is mostly gone and has taken on a nice saucy consistency, approximately 40-45 minutes.  Make sure to stir frequently while it cooks to keep the noodles from sticking to the pot. 

Stir in the sour cream at the very end.  Garnish it with parsley, and enjoy!

The House of Black & White: Yuca & Steak

I'd like a, a petit filet mignon, very lean, not so lean that it lacks flavour, but not so fat that it leaves drippings on the plate. And I don't want it cooked - just lightly seared on either side, pink in the middle; not a true pink, but not a mauve either, something in between, bearing in mind the slightest error either way, and it's ruined. 

Niles, Frasier 

This was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment concoction, but it turned out to be amazing.  Stoney and I went to a Cuban restaurant in Pigeon Forge over 4th of July weekend, and had yuca fries for the very first time.  We were both blown away by how good they were.  They were sweeter and, in my opinion, had a better body than regular french fries, and they basically just melted in your mouth after you bit through the crusty outside.  I was enamored, so the following weekend, I bought yuca at the store and decided to make yuca chips.  As grass-fed filet mignon was on sale, it seemed like a no-brainer meal.

What you need for the Yuca Chips:

• 2 yuca roots
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp cilantro 

To begin, preheat the oven to 475, peel the yuca and then either spiralize into ribbons or slice very thinly.  Toss the chips in olive oil, lime juice and cilantro.  Spread chips onto a greased baking sheet in a single layer and then cook for 5 minutes, flip, and cook another 5 minutes.  If you have thicker slices, your cook time may be longer.  They were really good served with guacamole!

What you need for the steak marinade:

• 1 orange
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp garlic
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tbsp cilantro

For the marinade, you want the juice from the orange, plus the pulp from one half of the orange (we grilled the pulp with the steaks and then ate it with them).  Mix all of the ingredients together, place the steaks in a large freezer bag, pour in the marinade, and then let sit for at least 4 hours.

Battle of the Blackwater: Beef Chile Verde

The weak are meat, and the strong do eat.

Cloud Atlas

It's not every day that you have to feed 8 hungry dudes fresh off of a weekend playing music for the hordes at Bonaroo, but that's exactly what we had to do this week!  My brother is a band manager, and so I provided a stopping point for him and one of his bands on the way to and from Bonaroo.  My solution to all of these hungry people?  Throw a ton of beef and other goodies into the slow cooker for a delicious (and filling!) rendition of chile verde.  We paired it with some corn bread and it was a feast fit for an army.

What you need:

• 2.5-3lb Ground sirloin
• 3 tomatillos, diced
• 2 red bell peppers, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 jalepeno, finely diced
• 3 tomatoes, diced
• 1 red onion, diced
• 16 oz. jar green salsa
• 4 oz. can green chiles
• 1 can kidney beans (black beans would also be good, Kidney is just what I had on hand)
• 2 tsp cumin
• Salt to taste
•  Fresh cilantro (to taste, for serving)
• Shredded cheese (for serving)
• Your favorite cornbread recipe 

It really doesn't get much easier to make:  Just dice everything up, put the tomatoes and peppers in, put the ground sirloin, green chiles and beans in, sprinkle the salt and cumin over the meat, toss the rest of the veggies in, and then pour the salsa over the top of everything.

 Cook on low for 8-10 hours, giving it a good stirring about halfway through.  If things are looking too watery, you can thicken it up by adding some flour or cornmeal.  I ended up adding about 3 tbsp of cornmeal and a pinch of flour, which thickened it up to a nice consistency.

Spoon the chili over a slice of cornbread (or just crumble the cornbread in afterwards, whichever you prefer), sprinkle some cheese on top, and garnish with fresh cilantro.  This recipe served 9.

House Baratheon: Venison Gnocchi with Kale

In the world I see... you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway.

Tyler Durden, Fight Club.

Awhile back, I acquired several delicious, less common meats, one of which was the yak  I made sambussas out of.  Today's recipe was made with the second of the interesting meats: Venison.  It was incredibly simple to make, delicious, and filling.  If you don't have access to venison, ground bison or lean ground beef would work just as well.  I split the dish into four servings, but it could go farther if you served it with some sides.

What you need:

• 1 lb. ground venison
• 2 bunches Lacinato Kale, torn into pieces, stems removed
• 1 medium sized yellow onion, diced
• 1 lb. Whole Wheat Gnocchi
• 6 oz. can Tomato Paste
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• Salt and pepper, to taste

To begin, season the meat with cumin, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and let sit while you get everything else going.  If I'm being honest, I probably used more cumin and red pepper than 1 tsp each, but 1 tsp will give you a nice flavor, so you can go with that or add more, whichever is to your liking.  Next, cook the gnocchi according to the directions on the package.  Once it is cooked, drain, toss in 1 tbsp olive oil, and set aside.

Next, heat remaining oil and garlic over medium high heat in a large skillet or wok.  When the garlic is fragrant, add the onions, cooking until they are translucent.  Once your onions are translucent, add the ground meat and tomato paste to the skillet.

Once the meat has browned, add in the kale.  You will have to add the kale bit by bit because it takes up so much room at first, but once it starts to wilt, you can fit everything.

Once all of your kale is stirred in and wilted, pour the gnocchi in, stir everything up, and then enjoy!

You Win or You Die: Yak Sambussas and Misr Wat with Injera Bread

I smell like a Yak!

Stargate

One of my all-time favorite types of food to go out for is Ethiopian.  The spices are amazing, the spongy bread you eat things with is perfection, and it's just generally a meal made for sharing and being happy.  That said, the closest Ethiopian restaurant to me at the moment is an hour away, so I haven't been going as regularly as I used to.

Cut to Stoney and I getting a great coupon to Mother Earth Meats, which is a great store in Knoxville, TN that sells lots of different meats.  On this trip, I came home with Ground Elk, Ground Venison, Ground Yak, and some maple-flavored sausages.  The next step was figuring out what on earth to do with all of this ground meat.  Seeing as one of my favorite things to get at the Ethiopian restaurant is the meat sambussa, I decided I would try to make a yak sambussa.  It was an amazing idea and I am thrilled with how they turned out.  To go along with it, I also made a version of Misr Wat, which is a red lentil dish and was also incredibly delicious, especially the next day.  While the spices in both were not quite the same as what I would get at the restaurant, I didn't really expect it to be because I was mostly just guessing at getting the right flavor.  It's my understanding that the key spice in Ethiopian food is berbere spice, which is a spice mix containing all sorts of other spices, and serves as the backbone for many Ethiopian dishes.  I couldn't find berbere spice, so I tried my hand at making my own, which I will detail below.  Consequently, if you try the recipes for yourself, you can either go with my blend, look up berbere spice and try your own blend, or use the real stuff.  Finally, I found a quick-and-easy Injera recipe for the signature bread.  The texture came out similarly, and it was good, but for the true flavor, you would probably have to invest the time to do it right.

"Berbere" spice blend
What you need for the spice mix:

• 1/3 cup chili powder
• 2 1/2 tsp fenugreek powder
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• pinch of salt

Yak Sambussa
What you need for Yak Sambussas:

• 1 lb ground yak meat
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 box phyllo dough sheets (in frozen aisle, thaw 1 roll before using)
• 1/2 spice mix (roughly, I would recommend starting with less and seasoning to your taste)

Begin by heating the oil in a large, nonstick skillet.  Once the oil is heated, add the onion and the Yak, and slowly stir in the spice mixture.  If you are wary of putting too much spice in, put some in, stir, let the yak cook, and then taste it, adding more as needed.  Once your meat it cooked and spiced to your liking, remove it from the pan and set aside.  I actually ended up refrigerating it for several hours in between cooking and making the sambussas, which made it easy to make them later.

The phyllo dough I used came in two rolls of approximately a million paper-thin sheets each.  I thawed one of the rolls, unwrapped it, and cut the whole thing in half lengthwise, which left me with strips that were about 4-6 inches wide.  

Take a strip of 3-5 sheets of phyllo dough (depending on how thick you want the dough - I tried it a few ways, and Stoney and I agreed that 3 was the best number for our taste) and place a blob of meat about 1 inch from one end.  Next, fold it up as if you were folding a flag, so that you end up with cute little triangles.  Make sure to be gentle but firm as you are rolling, because you want the dough to really hug the meat and be tight around it, but you don't want to break the dough.

All folded.  I stupidly forgot to take photos of how to fold them, but it really is just like folding a flag.

Place your sambussas on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 35 minutes.  The sambussas should be a beautiful golden color when you take them out of the oven.  Serve and enjoy!

Yeah, we devoured them.  It was amazing.

Just because I had a sheet left over from a past recipe, I also thawed a sheet of puff-pastry and made a few yak puff pastry parcels.  They were OUTSTANDING.  I loved the sambussas, but the puff pastry really lent a decadent edge to the whole thing and just took it up a notch.  Using the puff pastry kind of takes it out of the sambussa realm, but by all means give it a try.  You will not regret it.  I did not.

Misr Wat
What you need for Misr Wat:

• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/4 of spice mix
• 4 cups water

This really couldn't have been simpler.  Melt the butter in a sauce pan.  Add half of the spice.  Add onion.  Cook onion until soft.  Add lentils, water, and rest of spice.  Stir, bring to gentle boil, and then simmer on lower heat until you get a really tasty-looking, soupy mixture.  And that's it.  The lentils, in my opinion, tasted better on day 2, so this may be something you want to make the night before.


 Injera:

While Cooking

Rolled and ready for eating.

For the Injera, I just followed this recipe exactly, and it turned out great!