An Inspired Kitchen

Chili con Carne

I was at a Mexican grocery store and was inspired by all the dried chili’s they had and decided to make chili con carne.  I usually make chili and don’t put a lot of spice in it because I have family (and often myself) that can’t handle the heat, but I wanted to make a more authentic version with diced beef chuck and a mixture of fresh and oven-roasted chili’s. This version does not use any beans, so I decided to serve it over steamed rice and heated up some black beans that I mixed into the rice.  I used a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated as a guideline and made some cornbread with honey butter to go alongside.  The flavors were deep and complex with the different varieties of toasted and fresh chili’s, and the beef chuck was fall apart tender.  It is very easy to toast the dried chili’s in the oven and after they cooled I put them in a spice/coffee grinder and ground them up to make the flavor base.  After sautéing the beef and onion, you add the remaining ingredients and let it cook for 2 hours and thicken it with a mixture of masa harina or cornstarch and water slurry.  Delicious and authentic!  Click here for the recipe….

White Cake with Marzipan and Raspberry Filling and Buttercream

My friend Laura’s favorite cake is a white cake with real buttercream, so that’s what I made for her birthday.  I used America’s Test Kitchen’s recipe and it was really good with a wonderful crumb and light texture.  The directions sound very strange and I was a little apprehensive, but I trust them with all the recipe testing they do and decided to make it.  You mix the dry ingredients together including sugar, and then you add bits of butter and mix until you get a sandy mixture.  Then you mix the egg whites and milk together and pour it in to the dry ingredients and beat until it is smooth.  To frost the cake, I rolled out some marzipan and put it in the center, spread raspberry jam over that and then put some buttercream on top of the jam.  The buttercream recipe I have comes out every time.  You beat egg whites and sugar over a bain marie until it reaches 160 degrees  and then take it off the heat and beat it for 5 minutes or until the mixture has completely cooled.  Then you add pieces of room temperature butter while you continuously beat the mixture.  My KitchenAid mixer never lets me down and I would be lost without it!  I like to add pure almond extract and pure vanilla extract to the finished buttercream.  I make a large batch of Swiss meringue buttercream because that’s the best part of the cake and I hate to skimp on frosting and I also have enough to frost and then decorate the cake. I wish I had a piece now!!!  Click here for the recipe….

Braised Beef and Balsamic Stew with Polenta

I have been making lots of braised beef and pork dishes this winter.  They are just so delicious and don’t take much effort and fill your home with wonderful scents.  I love this stew with the addition of 1/3 cup of Balsamic vinegar.  The vinegar mellows after the long braise and really makes the sauce rich.  It’s really important to brown the meat and onions really well.  The caramelization adds so much rich, deep flavor to the stew.  A big tip is to sauté the beef in one layer in the Dutch oven over medium to high heat so it has a chance to really get a brown crust before you turn it over and brown the other sides.  If the meat is too crowded, it doesn’t brown very well.  I love polenta and it is very quick to make.  It’s a nice change to serve it with the stew rather than the mashed potatoes I usually serve.  Click here for recipe….

Lasagna Soup

It’s called lasagna soup because it has short wide curly noodles and is garnished with a blend of ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.  I didn’t have any ricotta, but that didn’t stop me from making it.  I used mild Italian chicken sausage, carrots, celery and crushed tomatoes.  It’s a nice hearty, but light soup and I like to serve it with my over the top cheesey garlic bread.  Make a double batch and freeze it for later!  Click here for the recipe….

Beef Rouladen with Spätzle and Red Cabbage

Beef rouladen is a wonderful German comfort food dish and one of my favorite winter dishes.  I got the recipe years ago from a great German restaurant we used to go to all the time in San Francisco called Suppenküche and have tweaked ita little.  I made it for a dinner party and it’s fairly easy because you can make a lot of it the day before.  You sauté bacon pieces with onions and shredded carrots and mix with chopped dill pickles (which sounds weird, but it’s really good).  I ask the butcher to cut top round pieces into thin slices and cut those in half and lay them out on a piece of plastic wrap for easy clean up.  Then I take Dijon mustard and put a dollop on each piece and use a pastry brush and smear it all over.  Then take some of the filling and put it on one end of the beef, roll it and secure with a toothpick.  After you get all of them rolled, you sauté the beef in a Dutch oven and brown them all over and then add tomato paste, red wine and beef broth and braise them in the oven for 2 hours and they become nice and tender.  I remove the beef to a serving platter and make a slurry of corn starch and water and quickly mix it into the sauce to make it a little thicker.  You can serve it over wide egg noodles, but I like to make spätzle (translates to “little sparrow”) which is a German egg noodle and it is made with a special spätzle grater that has a hopper that you swipe across to allow the noodle batter to drop in gently boiling salted water.  You can also use a large slotted colander. They take about 3-4 minutes to cook and then you shock them in an ice bath to stop the cooking.  Drain them and allow to dry off a little, toss with a little olive  oil and you can store them overnight if you want to make ahead of time.  Just before you serving, sauté them in a skillet with butter over medium high heat until lightly browned and sprinkle with some chopped parsley for a little color.  I also made red cabbage which I also love and it is slightly sweet and a little sour and it has caramelized onions, apples, cranberry sauce, apple juice, cider vinegar, sugar, cloves, and cinnamon sticks that you cook for an hour until it all melds together for a sweet and sour red cabbage.  You can also make the cabbage the day before.  Click here for the recipe….

Salad with Pears, Pomegranates, Pistachios and Feta with a Pomegranate Vinaigrette

This salad is light and fresh and I love the pop of the fresh pomegranates.  Trader Joe’s has baskets of fresh pomegranate seeds which make the task of de-seeding the pomegranate much easier!  This salad can be really switched up depending on what you have in the refrigerator.  Use blue cheese or goat cheese in place of the feta, and if you don’t have pomegranate vinegar, just use Balsamic vinegar and a little raspberry vinegar if you have it.  If you don’t have pistachios on hand, use walnuts, pecans or almonds.  It will all come out great I promise!  Click here for the recipe….

Roasted Salmon with Creamy Herbs and Panko Crust

In the winter when it is too cold to grill, I like to mix together a little topping for the salmon and roast it in a hot oven.  I use mayonnaise, Dijon, fresh or dried herbs, lemon juice and zest and mix it together and spread it on top of the salmon and then sprinkle panko bread crumbs on top.  Roast it in a 425 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until the salmon is cooked through and the panko is lightly toasted.  If it gets too brown before the salmon is cooked, cover with a piece of foil and continue cooking.  Click here for the recipe….

Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Rice and Refried Beans

This isn’t an authentic chicken enchilada recipe, but I love the creamy cheese center.  I often buy a roast chicken and shred it or use leftover chicken or turkey to make enchiladas.  Sauté an onion, red pepper, garlic, jalapeno pepper (optional), cumin, oregano, and chili powder and cook the vegetables.   Add some cream cheese and cheddar cheese and then stir the cooked chicken into the mixture for the filling.  If I have more time, I like to make my own enchilada sauce. I haven’t found a store bought one I like and you just add all the ingredients to a blender and then cook it in a saucepan which is pretty easy.  You can also use a can of enchilada sauce to make life more simple.  Just assemble them and pour the enchilada sauce on top with some cheese and bake.  I like to serve it with Salsa Rice and refried beans.  I just open a can or  two of refried beans and put it in small casserole dish and mix some cumin in to flavor it a bit more, sprinkle some cheese over the top and then bake it along with the enchiladas for the last 20 minutes.  Click here for the recipe….

Oatmeal with Toasted Coconut, Cranberries and Cinnamon

There’s nothing too fancy about this oatmeal but it is so good.  In a saucepan, I toasted some coconut and oatmeal, added some cinnamon, water and cranberries.  You could also use raisins, dried blueberries or dried cherries.  When it was cooked I drizzled some maple syrup over.  It’s a nice switch from the plain oatmeal I often make.  I never use quick cook oats.  It only takes a few more minutes to cook old fashioned oats and they have more nutrients and are less processed than quick cooked oats.  Click here for the recipe….