Picadillo

This recipe is excellent. I've made it several times and it tastes better every time. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com a few years ago. Its the ultimate comfort food and we all know how I feel about comfort foods. It can be served over rice or used as filling for empanadas. The cinnamon and bay leaf make the recipe so don't leave them out! I leave out the tomatoes and just add tomato sauce, cayenne, and sofrito.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

7 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium-large onion

1 medium-large green bell pepper, chopped

2 pounds ground beef or chuck

5 ounces pitted olives, halved

5 ounces capers, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 dried bay leaves

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 cup cilantro sofrito

1. In a large stock pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Saute onion and green pepper until onions are transparent. Add sofrito and garlic, saute another a minute or so. Remove from heat. In a separate saucepan, brown the ground beef.
2. Add the olives, capers, vinegar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cayenne, bay leaves and tomato sauce to the onion-sofrito mixture. Return to heat and let simmer over low heat for 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.

*Note: You can do this in one pan/pot. Start by browning the ground beef in the pan. Remove it and set aside. Then use the beef drippings in place of olive oil and follow the recipe from there.

Albondigas

A delicious Mexican comfort food. 

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey (beef is used traditionally)

1 lb Mexican chorizo (uncased)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon peppercorns, crushed

1 cup onions, diced and divided

¼ cup long grained rice, divided

7 cups water

32 ounces chicken broth

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 roma tomatoes, diced

3 large tomatoes, roasted and blended

2 small russet potatoes, cubed

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

2 celery stalks, chopped

¼ teaspoon coriander, crushed

1 handful of cilantro, chopped

¼ teaspoon whole safflower

Directions

In a large mixing bowl combine turkey and chorizo with garlic powder, salt, crushed peppercorns, 2 tablespoons of onions, and 1/8 cup of rice. Mix all ingredients together and roll out 1-inch meatballs.

Arrange three tomatoes on a baking sheet. Place your oven rack as close to the broiler as possible. Broil the tomatoes for about 20 minutes until softened, turning over after 10 minutes. If the skin has blackened remove it. In a blender or food processor, puree the tomatoes until smooth. Set aside.

In a large pot boil water, chicken broth, and minced garlic. Lower heat to medium and carefully add meatballs to the liquid. Cook meatballs for about 10-15 minutes or until the meatballs float to the surface and lower heat to simmer.

In a medium skillet sauté the remaining onions and diced roma tomatoes in olive oil.

To the pot of broth add the sautéed onions, tomatoes, fresh tomato sauce, remaining rice, potatoes, carrots, celery, coriander, cilantro, and safflower.

Cook over medium heat for an additional 30 minutes. Ladle soup with about 5 albondigas per bowl. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, lime wedges, and serve with warn corn tortillas. If you would like your soup spicy add a spoonful of your favorite homemade salsa.

Southern Comfort: Biscuits and Gravy

Lately I have indulging in what I like to call struggle meals, Now I know what you,re thinking, biscuits and gravy is quite decadent, but I assure you it is. A struggle meal is when you create something from seemingly nothing because you haven't been able to go to the store.

For this meal the milk and flour were both past their expiration dates. I had butter from making desserts at Thanksgiving and sausage that had been in my freezer. Thus, biscuits and gravy were born and it came out delicious, especially for my first time making either. Both recipes were adapted from ones I found on foodnetwork.com. 

Biscuit Ingredients

4 cups self-rising flour, plus more for dusting
1 stick good butter, plus 3 tablespoons melted
2 to 3 cups cold buttermilk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Biscuit Preparation

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Add the flour to a mixing bowl. Working quickly, cut 1 stick of the butter into the flour using the pastry cutter (or your fingers).

In batches, add in the buttermilk until the dough is cohesive yet still moist. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and lightly press into a 1-inch-thick round. 

Using a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter or a dry measuring cup, cut out 10 biscuits. 

Place the dough rounds into a heated, round cake pan, right up against each other, and brush with the melted butter. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes.

Gravy Ingredients

1/2 lb roll sausage
1 Tb flour
1 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Gravy Preparation

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage, break it up with a wooden spoon, and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned and cooked through, about 7 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a bowl, leaving the rendered fat in the skillet. Whisk the flour into the fat and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute. While whisking, pour the milk into the skillet and bring the gravy to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 2 minutes. Stir in the sausage and season with pepper. Split the biscuits in half and divide them among plates. Top each biscuit with some of the gravy and serve immediately.

Dessert: Peach Cobbler

Peach cobbler is one of my favorite desserts. You can get the recipe for my other favorite, pound cake, here. Something about warm peaches seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg, topped with vanilla bean ice cream makes me feel so at home. Its a comfort dessert! Here's mom's recipe

Ingredients

3 large cans (29oz) peaches in heavy syrup
2 boxes of pie crust (2 per box-4 total)
1-2 sticks of margarine or butter
1-cup of sugar
1-tsp nutmeg
1-tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup flour
2-3 tsp vanilla flavor

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Crust

Pie crust needs to be at room temp. Spread a heaping tablespoon of flour on a cutting board (or wax paper on a counter). Unroll pie crust onto flour and press out with a rolling pin or glass with shape of rolling pin. Place 2 crusts in bottom of 9x13 glass pan.

Filling

Reserve about 1/3 cup of peach juice to mix with the flour for thickening. Place the peaches with juice, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large pot, heat on medium until peaches are soft. Mix juice into flour a little at a time so flour does not have lumps. Add to peach pot a little at a time stirring frequently until juices are thick (you may have to add more flour until its as thick as you like it). **Be sure to add juice into the flour or you will get lumps of dough.** Add butter or margarine after juice is thickened. Stir in vanilla flavor (taste and add additional ingredients as needed). Pour peach filling into pan. Unroll and press out 2 other pie crusts and place on top (it's ok to over lap crusts). Crimp together edges.

*Make sure you have foil in bottom of oven to catch drippings*

Bake 45-50 minutes until crust is brown, spread butter on crust and sprinkle sugar just before removing. Check to make sure pie crust has not burned.

SoCo: Jambalaya

I've been craving jambalaya for weeks (probably because I haven't eaten rice in a while). Anyway, I found a few recipes and combined them to create this one. It cam out delicious. Try it!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 large yellow onions, diced

12 ounces andouille sausage, diced

1 large green bell peppers, cored, seeded, and diced

3 medium celery stalks, diced

3 tablespoons of Cajun or creole seasoning

3 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed

1 (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes

2 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cups long-grain white rice

1 box (32-ounce) low-sodium chicken stock or broth

2 bay leaves

2 medium scallions, thinly sliced

Instructions:

1. Heat a quarter size amount of the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot or large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Season the chicken with one tablespoon of the cajun or creole seasoning. Place about half of the chicken pieces in the pot and cook, stirring rarely, until browned all over, about 5 to 6 minutes. (If your pot is large enough to cook it all at once without crowding, do so). Remove to a large bowl and brown the remaining chicken in 1 more batch; set aside.

2. Add the butter and melt over medium heat. Add the onions, scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to release any browned bits, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions just begin to brown, about 6 minutes.

3. Add the sausage and cook until the meat is browned and the onions are very tender, about 10 minutes.

4. Add the bell peppers, celery, garlic, measured salt, and remaining cajun or creole seasoning. Cook, scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally, until the bell peppers have softened, about 10 minutes.

Stir in tomato paste until fragrant. Add the reserved chicken and any accumulated juices and the tomatoes.

5. Add stock or broth, rice, and bay leaves, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer until all liquid is absorbed. Stir occasionally making sure the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. Taste the liquid and season with salt if needed; the liquid will give your rice all the flavor it needs. I added cayenne pepper here too. 

6. Remove and discard the bay leaves.  Sprinkle with the scallions and serve.

Indian Spiced Chicken with Chickpeas and Kale

This recipe was adapted from a Bon Appetit magazine recipe. It came out a-maz-ing!!! It was so delicious! And not like, this-is-so-good-because-I-haven't-eaten-since-8AM-good, but truly delectable. I'm on a no carb kick so no side dishes for me, but I was filled. I'll probably buy some cauliflower for roasting as a side dish for the leftovers; seems fitting. If you'd like something else try rice, white or brown, or quinoa. Lentils would be an excellent substitute for chickpeas, as well. So here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

4-6 chicken quarter legs
Kosher salt
Coarse ground pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 large onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons grated peeled ginger
2 teaspoons ground curry powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2-3 cups of kale, washed and torn
1/4 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves with tender stems

PREPARATION

Place a rack in lower third of oven; preheat to 325°. Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Working in batches, sear the chicken, reducing heat as needed to prevent over-browning, until golden brown on all sides, 8-10 minutes per batch. Transfer to a plate.

Add butter and onions to drippings in pot. Cook, stirring often, until onions are soft and golden brown, 10-15 minutes.

Stir in garlic, ginger, curry powder, cumin, and cayenne. Cook, stirring constantly, until spices are fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in chickpeas and 2 cups broth. Return chicken and any accumulated juices to pot. Bring to a simmer. Cover pot and transfer to oven. Braise chicken until fork-tender, 45-60 minutes.

Using tongs and a slotted spoon, transfer chicken to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Add kale to pot, cover, and remove from heat. Let stand until kale is tender.

Stir yogurt or sour cream into cooking liquid. Return chicken to pot. Simmer over low heat (do not boil).

Plate and serve with cilantro.

Day Sixteen: Lebanese Lemon Lentil Soup

I've always enjoyed the world flavors of places near and far. Keeping up that same tradition I've found a Lebanese lentil soup that deserves trying.

Adas bil Hamod
8 Servings

 1 tablespoon olive oil
 1/2 cup chopped onions
 1 pound brown lentils
 3 cloves garlic, minced
 1 (16 ounce) package frozen whole leaf spinach
 1 tablespoon dried mint, crushed
 salt to taste
 3/4 cup lemon juice

Directions

Heat oil in large pot over high heat. When oil is very hot, add onions and stir until onions begin to turn dark brown and caramelize, about 10 minutes. Put the lentils, garlic, frozen spinach, and mint into the pot. Pour in enough water so that it is about 2 inches deeper than the lentil mixture. Stir well to loosen browned bits of onion on the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium. Simmer, uncovered, until lentils are tender, about 20 minutes. If soup gets too thick, add a little more water. Salt to taste. Lower heat and stir in lemon juice.

Curry Comfort

I absolutely love curry! The aroma that fills the house when its cooked makes me feel so warm inside. Curry is comfort food for me. I make it like some people make spaghetti: all the time. Its a go-to meal when I have no idea what else to make. Its delicious, colorful, and like most simmer dishes, tastes better the next day! Enjoy!

Ingredients

4-5 Chicken Thighs
2 Medium Russet or White Potatoes, cubed
1 Large Red Onion, sliced
1 Large Green Bell Pepper, sliced
1 Large Yellow Bell Pepper, sliced
3-4 Carrots, sliced
3 Tbsp Curry Powder
1 Tsp Cumin
1/2 Tsp Paprika
1/2 Tsp Cayenne or Crushed Red Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Seasoned Salt
Pepper
2 Cups Chicken Stock or Water
2 Cups Basmati or Jasmine Rice

Preparation

1. Season the chicken thighs (just eyeball it) with seasoned salt, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, and paprika. Pan sear until skin is crisp and golden brown.
2. Add 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 tbsp of curry powder, cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through and fork tender.
3. Add the remaining chicken stock, curry powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, carrots and potatoes. Simmer until veggies are tender.
4. Add peppers and onions. Cook until tender but still colorful.
5. Serve over rice with a side of sauteed cabbage.

Down Home with Mary Mac

Miss Mary Mac, Mac, Mac
All dressed in black black black
With silver buttons buttons buttons
All down her back back back
She asked her mother mother mother
For fifty cents cents cents
To see an elephant elephant elephant
Jump over a fence fence fence
He jumped so high high high
He touched the sky sky sky
And didn't come back back back
Till the Fourth of July July July . . .

There's probably no correlation between that childhood song and this restaurant but I can't help sing it every time hear the name Mary Mac. As I looked it up the lyrics to make sure I had them right I realized the ending is rather morbid. I'm not sure if ever knew the end or I just chose to forget it because I didn't like it, either way Mary Mac's Tea Room is a must when visiting Atlanta. It's cuisine is the epitome of southern comfort food and has been since 1945. 

It's fried, smothered, covered and baked to perfection. You won't be disappointed with any selection. They start you off with yeast rolls, cinnamon rolls, and cornbread that you'll struggle not to fill up on. If you haven't been here before definitely try the Brunswick stew or pot likker as an appetizer. I chose the special of the day, chicken fried chicken. It was topped with classic white gravy and served with a choice of two sides. With all the sides they have to choose from it was particularly hard to narrow it down. You can't have white gravy without mashed potatoes, so that's one but I couldn't decide on just one other after that so I got macaroni and cheese and fried green tomatoes. The chicken was tender and crispy even the next day. I've had better green tomatoes and the mac & cheese was too salty this time but that's not the norm. From previous experiences I can tell you the greens, green beans, black eyed peas, sweet potato souffle, and cheese grits are killer sides. Save room for dessert! The peach cobbler is warm and sweet with flaky, buttery crust. You can also choose from pecan pie, bread or banana pudding, or strawberry shortcake to name a few. 

Vegetable Stuffing

Sorry if you came across this post looking for a tasty holiday treat. Honestly, I don't like stuffing at all, I just liked the play on words. Anyway, as you are aware I am not from the "old country", but I love comfort food as much as the next girl. Every country, region, city, town, village, family has their own comfort foods. I bought a huge head of cabbage from HMart the other week and I wanted a different way to prepare it other than the usual steaming. So I decided on stuffed cabbage. Its a eastern European favorite that is made differently in different regions. You can stuffed it with lamb, beef, or pork and bake it in broth or a tomato sauce. Here's a recipe for the Polish version:

 Polish Stuffed Cabbage

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 whole head cabbage, about 4 pounds
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup beef stock
Sour cream for garnish (optional)

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove core from cabbage. Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water. Cover and cook 3 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves. You will need about 18 leaves.

When leaves are cool enough to handle, use a paring knife to cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through.

Chop the remaining cabbage and place it in the bottom of a casserole dish or Dutch oven.

Saute the chopped onion in butter in a large frying pan until tender, and let it cool.

Mix cooled onions with beef, pork, rice, garlic, salt and black pepper until well combined. Don't overmix or the meat will become tough.

Place about 1/2 cup of meat on each cabbage leaf. Roll away from you to encase the meat. Flip the right side of the leaf to the middle, then flip the left side. You will have something that looks like an envelope. Once again, roll away from you to create a neat little roll.

Place the cabbage rolls on top of the chopped cabbage in the casserole dish or Dutch oven, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper. Pour beef stock over rolls, cover and place in oven. Bake for 1 hour or until cabbage is tender and meat is cooked.

Serve with pan juices and a drizzle of sour cream, or mix the pan juices with sour cream and ladle it over the cabbage rolls.

Cabbage rolls freeze well before or after cooking, and can be made in a slow cooker (see your manufacturer's instructions).