All things gluten-free and dairy-free...
All the while dancing wildly in the kitchen, singing unabashedly in the car, and thrift store shopping to my heart's content.
Another variation on a theme. Fish tacos. Grilled tropical fruit salsa. I ain't ready to say good-bye to summer just yet.
Fish Tacos with Grilled Tropical Fruit Salsa
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs mild white fish fillets
1/4 watermelon, sliced and grilled
1 pineapple, sliced and grilled
1 mango, sliced and grilled
2 ripe avocados, chopped
3 TBS cilantro, chopped (more or less to taste)
2 TBS light agave nectar
1/8 tsp salt
cajun seasoning
butter (or butter substitute)
12 corn tortillas
The Preparation Method:
Begin heating the grill on high.
Slice watermelon, pineapple and mango. Brush both sides with a light coat of agave nectar. Place on a very hot grill. Grill about five minutes or until fruit is soft and has nice grill marks. Flipping once halfway through.
Turn oven broiler on high.
Wash and pat dry the white fish. Place in a baking dish one layer thick. Sprinkle a heavy dose of cajun seasoning over the top. The more the better with this stuff! Add small bits of butter over the top about four inches apart.
Place under the broiler for approximately 7 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.
Pull the fruit off the grill. Dice the watermelon, pineapple, mango and avocado. Mix together in a large bowl with 1/8 tsp salt and 3 TBS chopped cilantro. Pour any remaining agave nectar in the mix.
Serve inside warmed corn tortillas. We like to fry each tortilla in a piping hot skillet with a touch of oil to make it slightly brown and very soft. Salting the fried tortilla makes it even better. Enjoy!
Twelve years ago I married a New Mexican. I always knew I would. I grew up watching Young Guns and dreaming about the rough and tumble personalities that came with the territory. I thought someday I would name my children Billy, Charley and Chavez. Two girls and a boy. As of today I have two boys and a girl and I didn't name them Billy, Charley or Chavez.
When I visited New Mexico as a tween I was absolutely taken with the flash rain storms and humongous sky. The rain would come down in such unique fashion—the drops spread so far from one another you could dodge them if you were nimble enough—I had never experienced anything like it.
Besides their love for gun slinging and rabble rousing, one thing I learned quickly about New Mexicans is their love for roasted hatch green chilies and hot salsa. I have come to love roasted hatch green chilies and hot salsa too—admittedly it has taken me some time—and keeping in mind that 'hot' is a relative term.
This week I created a New Mexican Chorizo Burger for my family to inspire that Billy the Kid spirit at the dinner table. (And give me a reason to play Jon Bon Jovi's Blaze of Glory tape as our background music.)
New Mexican Chorizo Burgers
Serves: 6
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound chorizo sausage
1 large yellow onion
4 TBS olive oil (maybe more)
6 full roasted hatch green chilies or 1 small can roasted hatch green chilies
2 ripe avocados
6 hamburger buns (gluten free)
1 cup mayonnaise
3 TBS salsa
3 pinches salt
Preparation Method:
Combine 1 pound ground beef and 1/2 pound mexican chorizo sausage. Mix really well so the two meats are one in the same. Shape into patties. A thin patty is better than a thick patty for this burger. A quarter inch thick would be a good starting place. As with any burger they will thicken up on the grill. There are a lot of toppings for the finished burger. We want to create space, plenty of space.
Get 'em going on the grill. Cook approximately 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through.
In the meantime, prepare the rest of the toppings.
Slice the onions thinly in half ringlets. Heat 4 TBS olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute until caramelized.
Keep stirring so they don't stick to the bottom of the pan or become burnt. Add more oil if necessary to achieve this golden brown crispy goodness.
Crack open your hatch green chilies. Fresh (or frozen) chilies are preferred. They can usually be found in your grocers freezer, unless you go to a store that doesn't carry them like we did on this particular day. If you can't find them, the canned chilies will do but will deeply impact the end result. I suggest you go to great lengths to find the fresh ones, my friends. Unless you're running late like we were on this particular day, then the canned ones will have to do.
Grab your hamburger buns. This was the first time we tried gluten free hamburger buns and we were pretty satisfied. You should have seen the look on the kids faces when they saw a burger with a BUN! What a novelty in our gluten free house.
Prepare the special sauce for the buns. Combine 1 cup mayonnaise, 3 TBS of your favorite salsa and 3 pinches of salt. Mix well. Spread generously on both sides of the bun.
Stack 'em up. Sauce on the bottom, green chilies below the burger, avocado slices and caramelized onions on top.
Enjoy! And don't forget to turn on your Jon Bon Jovi tape.
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Jon Bon Jovi - Blaze of Glory
Usually when I make this announcement, all the adults on the premises growl with disappointment. Here in The Little White Kitchen I have a rule I follow closely—I cook one dinner for all the peoples. It is against my policy to prepare multiple options for all the peoples of the house. The rule is simple—if you don't like what I've made, don't eat. Thankfully there will be breakfast in the morning.
On hot dog night the rule still stands. Typically the children have no problem my meal selection. The adults, on the other hand, were getting a bit tired of the boring-yet-functional hot dog with no bun routine.
To make this night something everyone could look forward to I added a few embellishments to the routine. All peoples over three foot tall were very pleased with my twist on this classic kids dinner.
Crispy Onion Hot Dog Sandwiches
serves: 4
prep time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
4 all beef kosher hot dogs
8 slices gluten free bread
1 cup coleslaw topper (One batch = 1/2 head green cabbage, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1 TBS rice vinegar, 1/2 tsp celery seed, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp sugar)
1 large onion, sliced
2 TBS vegetable oil
2 TBS ketchup
2 TBS mayonnaise
1/8 tsp sugar
The Preparation Method:
Cook hot dogs on the grill.
While the dogs are cooking, fry onion slices in 2 TBS vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Continue frying until onions are golden and crispy. Remove from heat and set aside.
While onions are frying make the special sauce. Mix together 2 TBS ketchup, 2 TBS mayonnaise and 1/8 tsp sugar. Set aside.
When all pieces are ready it's time to assemble the sandwiches. Toasted bread. Special sauce on each slice. Hot dogs split down the center, arranged flat side down on the bread. Layer a hearty helping of crispy onions over the dogs. And a thin layer of Coleslaw Topper over the onions. Smush it all together and dig in!
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I LOVE this jam. I'd never seen the video before today, even tough I've listened to the song about a million times. It makes me love the song and Erykah Badu even more.
Oh, pardon me. I didn't realize you were listening. I do have a tendency to sing loudly when I'm alone in the kitchen. I typically don't sing so loudly when other folks are present, unless you have the good fortune of being one of my children. In that case you'd be asking me to be quiet because it's embarrassing. But since you're surely not one of my children I won't be singing for you any time soon. Unless you're stopped next to my car at a red light. In that case you'd be smiling awkwardly at me over the passenger seat because you find my singing to be so off-pitched it hurts. Then you'll see me slowly rolling up my windows and looking even more awkwardly back at you. But anyhow, I'm singing today because this is today's theme song. And theme songs are meant to be sung along to. The first day of summer. Summer solstice. The longest day of the year. A day for grilling out. A season for salads.
And today, boy oh boy, do I have a salad for you. Balsamic Glazed Sliced Steak Salad is the perfect mix of light and hearty, sweet and savory.
This has become the favorite salad in our house. The other night I prepared enough to last two dinners but was pleasantly surprised to find my children asking for seconds and thirds. Sure enough we finished off the whole batch in one sitting.
The key to this salad is the balsamic reduction. Since I don't have a lot of extra time on my hands and I prefer to do things the easy way, I made sure my balsamic reduction was super simple. It needed to be something I could do while candying pecans. So I dumped a bottle of balsamic vinegar in a heavy saucepan and put the heat on. Then I reduced the liquid to half while stirring continuously. Now that's what I'm talkin' about.
Enough talk. Let's get to it.
Balsamic Glazed Sliced Steak Salad
Ingredients:
1-2 pounds flank steak (or whatever you want to cook up tonight)
1 large head of romaine lettuce, chopped
2 cups candied pecans
1 cup dried cranberries, sweetened
10 oz grape tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise
16 oz sliced button mushrooms
1/4 head shredded red cabbage
1/2 liter balsamic vinegar
balsamic vinaigrette dressing
The Preparation Method:
Let us begin by taking a closer look at the tastiest salad I've made in years...
Now that we have our inspiration for the task ahead of us, we shall carry-on.
Word to the wise with this salad—plan ahead. Make the balsamic reduction yesterday. Make the candied pecans the day before yesterday. There is no good reason why you should be eating dinner at ten o'clock at night just because you forgot to make these most crucial items ahead of time. They both keep on the shelf nicely. Make them when you have an extra half hour in the day and be amazed at how quickly you can pull this salad together.
The balsamic reduction glaze is easy. Pour a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette in a heave saucepan. Use half a liter or a full liter. (The glaze that is left over can be stored in an airtight container in the cupboard to spruce up most meat or fish entrees.) Turn the heat on medium-high. Stir continuously. Bring to a slow boil. When the vinegar sticks to a wooden spoon, as seen in the picture above, the reduction is complete. It should be thick like molasses. This process took me about 30 minutes. Beware of letting it go too long for fear of it burning. Immediately take off the heat and let cool. Set aside. (The cupboard is fine. The refrigerator will turn it hard as a rock.)
Next begin preparing the other toppings...
Thinly sliced red cabbage.
Grape tomatoes cut lengthwise.
Sweetened dried cranberries.
Thinly sliced button mushrooms.
Now it's time to get the steak on the grill. Get the grill nice and hot before you put the steak on. Help the steak stay nice and tender by only flipping it once. Keep the lid on the grill while it's cooking.
Grill your steak how you like it. For us this was about four minutes on each side to achieve nice grill marks on the outside and medium-rare in the center. This steak was a little thick. Less time if your steak is thinner.
Bring off the grill and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes depending on the thickness. This will allow all the juices to settle into the meat rather than run all over your cutting board. Then thinly slice the steak.
While the steak is resting, start dressing the salad plates...
A handful of mushrooms.
Just a touch of red cabbage.
A small handful of dried cranberries.
Some grape tomatoes.
And a few candied pecans. Unless you are one of my children. In which case you would grab the whole bowl and dump it on your plate and leave none for your siblings or your parents. Sneaky buggers.
Even though Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing is quite possibly one of the easiest salad dressings on the planet, I opted for a store bought variety. Newman's Own is one of my favorites! Pour a light drizzle over the salad at this point.
Now add the slices of steak over the top and give a heavy drizzle of the balsamic reduction over the top of the warm meat. In a minute or two it will melt into the meat and turns into magic on a plate.
Enjoy on the back porch—or stoop or balcony or fire escape—tonight.
Happy summer everyone!
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What is better than a video with Karaoke style lyrics? Come on and sing along with me. I promise I won't give you any awkward looks.
The long awaited Beans and Rice with BBQ Squash was worth every second of the three week delay.
This recipe has five parts, which could easily feel overwhelming if you attempted to do it all in one shot. I chose not to feel that way - and after all, I am the master of how I choose to feel - so I worked on the pieces to this puzzle over the span of a few days.
I will post the various peices in separate posts for ease of readability. This blog post would stretch from here to the Baltic Sea if I included it all in one place. Click on the links below for the items that you should prepare ahead of time.
First item of business - The Slaw - I did this two nights prior.
Second item on the agenda - Butternut Squash - I did this the night before.
Third piece to the prep puzzle - Chicken Marinade - I did this at lunchtime the day of.
If you don't think this is a quick meal, I'll have you know that I started cooking this meal at 3pm. The kids were eating by 3:45pm. All four of us were out the door to soccer practice by 4pm. That's about as quick as they come when cooking from scratch. Once everything got rolling the swiftness of the prep surprised me!
So, whenever you're ready to start cooking this is what you'll do...
Fourth item - Rice - This is the first thing you'll put to heat as you start to pull this meal together.
Put the rice on to cook. However much you think you're family likes to eat. We use two cups of rice for our family of five.
Fifth and final item in the Five Fold Burrito - Pinto Beans - Get these going after the rice is on the stovetop.
Sorry, no pictures for the beans. But don't worry, it's easy. All you have to do is saute half of an onion, one clove of garlic, and 1/4 tsp cumin in 2 TBS vegetable oil. Once soft, pour two cans of pinto beans (drained and rinsed) into the pot, add 1/4 cup water and 1/8 tsp salt. Stir and heat it up. Done.
Now that the rice and beans are cooking on the stovetop it's time to head outside to the grill to lay down the squash and chicken.
Simple.
Flip halfway through, about 8 minutes. Continue grilling until all items are done. Perhaps 5 more minutes. Chicken should no longer be pink in the middle. Squash should be easy to penetrate with a fork.
Cut the chicken and squash into one inch pieces. Layer all items: rice, beans, chicken, squash and slaw. Yummmm.
You could even put it into a tortilla for the true burrito effect. Gluten-free tortillas are expensive and nasty. We choose to eat ours as a burrito bowl to maximize pleasure in the experience.
Attention all vegetarians: To make this a meatless burrito, you know what to do.
This is my new favorite way to prepare squash. The brown sugar caramelizes on the grill and the squash gets a little charred. Chop this into little squares as a welcome addition to all kinds of dishes and soups, specifically the Five Fold Burrito.
Grilled Butternut Squash
You'll Need:
one butternut squash
3 TBS vegetable oil
salt
pepper
1/2 cup brown sugar
The Preparation Method:
Peel the squash with a good potato peeler. It's so much easier than you think. Come on, just try it.
Chop it in half. Or should I say, saw it in half. This thing is hard as a rock and slippery as a skate on ice. Unlike the item above, this task is much harder than you think. Just be careful with that knife.
So glad you didn't get hurt. Now slice the squash into pieces a 1/2 inch thick, give or take. Due to the slippery-like-ice nature of this Cucurbita moschata don't feel bad if some slices come out thick and some thin. Roll with it, it will all be tasty in the end. Once sliced, place in the refrigerator until grill time (up to 24 hours in advance).
At grill time, brush squash pieces with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on the grill. Take spoonfulls of the brown sugar and mash it onto the top side of each slice. Grill for approx. 8 minutes. Flip. Mash more brown sugar on this flip side.
Grill until squash is tender and easy to penetrate with a fork.
I'm thinking a little break from the kitchen on Labor Day sounds about right. Everyone else is taking the day off, why not the Dancing Cook too?
Fish Tacos on the Grill is just what was in order on such a fine late summer day. Less cooking always means more dancing, right?
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Here's what you'll need:
1 1/2 lbs white fish of any variety (I used Mahi Mahi thanks to the super sale at the store)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp garlic salt
butter or your favorite butter substitute
1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
2 Tbs mayonnaise
juice from 1/2 of a lime
corn tortillas
(Side dishes - corn on the cob, refried beans)
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Preparation:
Start by getting the grill going. Make it nice 'n' hot in there.
Prepare the cabbage salsa. Shred 1/2 head of green cabbage by finely slicing the cross section. Add 2 Tbs mayonnaise and juice from 1/2 of a lime. Mix wildly.
Cover and place in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to meld while you prepare the fish.
Since the fish will be cooked on the grill, grab a hearty ol' metal baking dish and lightly grease the bottom.
Place fish fillets (skin side down, of course) in the pan.
Mix together the cumin and garlic salt. Sprinkle on top of little fishy. Place small bits of butter down the center of each fillet.
Find another ol' metal baking dish and grab your corn tortillas. Place the whole stack of them in the pan, place a touch of water in there and cover with tin foil.
Make your way out to the grill (just don't trip over the plastic dinosaur village in the middle of your kitchen floor) and place the two pans containing fish and tortillas directly on the grill. Close the lid.
Cook approximately 10 minutes or so, until fish flakes easily. Check often as not to overcook the fish, which can be easy to do when you're taking turns with your six year old jumping on the trampoline.
When the fish is done, so will be your refried beans and corn on the cob that are on the stovetop inside.
Bring fish and tortillas back inside and assemble tacos.
