Recent Posts

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sunday Night Football Sunday Night Dinner


Hello Friends! I don't know about you, but I am PUMPED about the football season. Football and hockey are my favorite sports. To commemorate the beginning of the NFL season, I went with a football friendly menu: Meatball subs! The Mister and I are trying to be reasonably healthy, so instead of fries or other bad for you starch, we had an arugula salad with the subs, which was pretty nice because the peppery arugula cut through the heavy main dish.

Aiight start with your tomato sauce. The longer you simmer a tomato sauce, the better it gets.
Mince a yellow onion, and toss it into a preheated saucepan with a four count of olive oil. Sweat the
onions over medium heat for about ten minutes. I added a good pinch of red pepper flake at this
point, but use your discretion. If you don't want any heat don't add it. Next add four cloves of chopped
garlic and cook for one more minute, then add 1/2 cup or so of your favorite red wine - a chianti
would be nice. If you don't have any red wine, white will work too - try not to use a riesling or really
sweet wine because it will make this sauce too sweet. Cook the wine down for 3 minutes or so, then
add two fifteen ounce cans of tomato puree. You can use crushed tomatoes if you want more texture
in your sauce, but I prefer a smooth tomato sauce. Taste for seasonings and add salt and pepper
accordingly, as well as a teaspoon of dried oregano. Turn your heat down to medium low and simmer
the sauce whilst you make the meatballs, stirring occasionally. Cover if you wish so your stove doesn't
get covered in tomato splatters. Add some chopped fresh basil at this point too - 10 leaves I'd say.

Now for the meatballs! Mince a medium-small yellow onion and brown in in an oven safe frying pan over medium heat
with a handful of chopped parsley. Once the onion is browned, scrape it out of the pan into a mixing bowl
to cool. Once cooled, add 1/2 pound of ground pork, 1/2 pound ground beef (85/15 people - it's SND), one egg,
a little less than 1/2 cup of dried bread crumbs (I use Panko), and a good amount of salt and ground
pepper. Time to get dirty (with clean hands)! Combine all of the ingredients using your hands, but don't
over work the meat (heh). Once the ingredients are combined, start forming your meatballs and set
aside on a plate. Make them however big or small you'd like. I went with medium-ish to fit in
the sammiches. Preheat the same pan you cooked the onions in with a two count of olive oil over
medium heat, then start browning the meatballs. Don't over-crowd the pan, if they don't all fit,
you can cook them in batches. You want them to get nice and browned on all sides, and don't
worry that they are not cooked through. They are going in the oven! Oooh that reminds me, preheat
your oven to 350 degrees. Gah, I'm the worst at that, sorry.

So once your meatballs are all browned, turn the heat off, put them all back in the pan and ladle some
of your tomato sauce (which you've continued to stir over low heat this whole time, tasting for
seasoning of course). You don't want to smother the meatballs with sauce, just ladle some around the
meatballs so that the bottom of the pan is covered. Now it gets really good: Cut some slices of
fresh bufalo mozzarella to about the same size of your meatballs and place the slices on top of the
meatballs. Dude. I know. Put the pan into the oven and cook for ten to fifteen minutes. The meatballs
will cook through and the mozzarella will melt and get bubbly and delicious. DUDE.

Prepare your bread whilst the meatballs are in the oven. We went with little ciabatta loaves, but use
whatever you like. French bread would work well too. Just don't use sliced bread, that doesn't make
any sense. Cut open your rolls, but don't slice all the way through. Put some of your tomato sauce
into the roll, then meatballs to fit. If you're like me, you'll add a little more mozzarella on top
as well as some Parmesan. Yup. I did it.

Side note: Adam put some black olives and chopped pepperoncinis on his meatball sandwich, and loved it.
Give that a try if you'd like!

Put your rolls on a sheet pan and throw them into the oven for another five to ten minutes -
melt the new cheese and get the rolls nice and toasty.

And you're ready to enjoy! Serve with your choice of sides - go for the fries or have some spaghetti
with more of your tomato sauce if you'd like. Like I said, I really liked the arugula salad, but ya'll
should Sunday Night Dinner it up as you see best.

Kisses!

D


PS Clearly I need to figure out this new fangled blogging thing. I apologize for the weird format, I don't know why
it did that and I can't figure out how to fix it. C'est la vie!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Tortilla Soup Deliciousness


Hello again sports fans! It's time once again to make some SND! This week I made tortilla soup (inspired by Ina's mexican chicken soup) and as you can see, it was a rousing success! Let's get into it!

Start by mincing a large yellow onion. I wish I had a secret for tearless onion chopping, but I don't. Waterproof mascara is good for not looking like a nightmare when you're done, but for the life of me I can't make the tears stop when I am chopping those onions. Can you?

Anyhooooo, chop the onion and quit whining. Throw it into a heated stock pot that has a five count of olive oil and sweat those puppies for five minutes or so. Chop four carrots and add them to the onions with some S & P. Cook the onions and carrots together for another ten minutes over medium heat, then add 4 chopped cloves of garlic. Stir, add a few glugs of white wine, and let that cook down for a few minutes. Next add 2 quarts of chicken stock, two 15 ounce cans of tomato puree, two to four (depending on how much heat you can handle, I used two) seeded and minced jalepeno peppers, 1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin, and 1 teaspoon of crushed coriander seed. Salt and pepper to taste here, it just depends on how salty the chicken stock is that you're using is. I also added a pinch of cayenne pepper, but use your own discretion on this. Stir everything together, then add a nice handful of chopped cilantro and the thing that gives this soup it's name: the tortillas! Slice 6 or so six inch fresh flour or corn tortillas in half, then crosswise into 1/2 inch strips and toss those into the soup. Don't worry - they're going to break down, thicken the soup, and give it some great texture. Bring the soup to a boil, then simmer for a half hour.

Whilst your concoction is simmering, shred your chicken. What chicken you say? Well you can cheat like I did and get a rotisserie chicken (ya'll know I love it - time and dish saver, plus you can snacky on the legs!) or you can roast the chicken yourself. I am all for not cutting corners on SND, but I just find rotisserie chickens to be really tender. If you want to roast the chicken, get three bone in skin on chicken breasts, rub them with olive oil and S & P, and throw them in a 350 degree oven (on a cookie sheet) for thirty five minutes. Let cool, then de-skin and de-bone. Same for the rotisserie chicken, de-skin and de-bone.

Okay, so throw your shredded chicken into the soup as well as a can of black beans that you've drained and rinsed, and another big ol' handful of chopped cilantro. Simmer for another fifteen minutes and you're ready to serve! Slice up some ripe avocado and have tortilla chips, sour cream, and your favorite shredded cheese at the ready for toppings. Hot damn! Go try it!

XO
d